Sep. 13 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Thai activist Jatuporn ‘New’ Saeoueng has been sentenced to two years in prison on Tuesday after being found guilty of lese majesty for dressing as Queen Suthida during a demonstration that took place in 2020 in Bangkok, the country’s capital.
The young woman had attended the march in a pink silk dress, although she has assured that it was not an insult to the Royal House and that she simply “wore a traditional costume” to the protest, according to information from the newspaper ‘Bangkok Post ‘.
However, Thai law prohibits any criticism of the monarchy. Since King Maha Vajiralongkorn ascended the throne in 2019, human rights groups have warned that the authorities have used the lèse-majesté law to kill protesters demanding a reform of the monarchy.
Since November 2020, at least 210 protesters have been charged with this type of crime after a three-year period in which this regulation was barely implemented, as reported by Thai legal groups.
Queen Suthida often wears silk dresses to attend public events, so Justice considers that Jatuporn, who was originally sentenced to three years in prison, was trying to mock the monarch.
A spokesman for the organization Amnesty International pointed out that his performance was a “simple satire of the political situation in the country.” “Participants should not be punished for participating in a peaceful assembly,” he has said.
In 2021, an official who expressed his ideas against the Royal House through social networks was sentenced to 43 years in prison.
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