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Thai academic says he was charged for royal insult
BANGKOK (AFP) — Thai police Tuesday charged an outspoken academic with insulting the royal family in a book, the accused professor said, a day after an Australian author was jailed on similar charges.
Giles Ji Ungpakorn, a political science professor, said he was formally charged under the kingdom's harsh lese majeste laws protecting the monarchy from defamation.
The academic told AFP he was was charged over "the content of my anti-military coup book, 'A Coup for the Rich.'"
"The charges seem to have arisen out of a complaint made by the Chulalongkorn University book shop to the police," said Giles, a Thai national who teaches there.
The book is about the bloodless military putsch in 2006 which toppled then-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who now lives in exile to avoid a jail sentence for corruption.
Giles has frequently commented on and written about the royal family's role in politics -- a highly sensitive matter in Thailand, where opposing political factions frequently claim the support of the crown.
He has 20 days to make a statement to the police, who will then decide whether to forward the case to the courts for trial.
There was no immediate comment from police.
The move comes a day after Australian author Harry Nicolaides was sentenced to three years in prison by a Bangkok court after pleading guilty to insulting the royals in a novel he self-published in 2005.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said the sentence was "a serious violation of free expression" and expressed concern at the use of the lese majeste laws to suppress political discussion and dissenting voices.
Thai authorities have banned nearly 4,000 websites in recent months for allegedly insulting the monarchy. Police said last week that more than 17 criminal cases of insulting the royal family are currently active.
Giles said he believed the current government, which was elected by parliament last month, was using the laws to prevent freedom of speech and debate.
"The government, the prime minister, should order that they (the lese majeste laws) cease being used against people and that a whole review of the law should take place," Giles said.
Thailand has some of the harshest laws in the world protecting widely revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej and his family from insult, and breaches carry a maximum sentence of 15 years in jail.
