Thailand's criminal court has jailed a webmaster for 13 years on charges of insulting the kingdom's revered monarchy and violating computer laws, an official said Wednesday. Thantawut Thaweevarod-omkul, 38, was arrested last year during anti-government "Red Shirt" protests after the website he ran - linked to the opposition movement - allegedly published comments insulting the monarchy.
Thailand has drawn flak from rights groups for suppressing freedom of speech using the Computer Crimes Act and lese majeste legislation, which bans criticism of the royal family. "The court found that he was guilty under criminal code article 112 and sentenced him to 10 years in jail," a court official told AFP, referring to the lese majeste charge in relation to the website www.norporchorusa.com.
Nor Por Chor stands for the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) in Thai - the official name of the Red Shirts. He was also sentenced on Wednesday to three years for violating the computer crimes law that relates to allowing content deemed likely to affect national security onto a computer system and covers web providers and moderators.
Amnesty International has called on authorities to drop charges against another Thai, website editor Chiranuch Premchaiporn, who faces decades behind bars over reader comments about the monarchy posted on her site. The rights group said the case shows "how far the Thai government is willing to go toward silencing unpopular or dissident views".
Authorities have also been criticised for using emergency powers to arrest hundreds of suspects and shut down anti-government TV channels, newspapers, radio stations and websites after its crackdown on protests last year. Two months of mass anti-government rallies by the "Red Shirts", who were seeking immediate elections, sparked clashes with security forces that left more than 90 people dead, mostly civilians, in April and May 2010. The monarchy is a very sensitive topic in politically turbulent Thailand. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest reigning monarch and revered as a demi-god by many Thais, has been hospitalised since September 2009.
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