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Writer jailed for Thai 'insult' Writer jailed for Thai 'insult'
(about 2 hours later)
Australian writer Harry Nicolaides has been sentenced to three years in jail for insulting the monarchy. Australian writer Harry Nicolaides has been sentenced to three years in a Thai jail for insulting the monarchy.
Bangkok's Criminal Court initially sentenced him for six years but reduced the term because he had pleaded guilty. Nicolaides wrote a novel four years ago, which contained a brief passage referring to an unnamed crown prince. It sold just seven copies.
Nicolaides, who was working as a teacher in Thailand, was arrested as he was leaving the country last August. He admitted the charge of insulting the royal family, but said he was unaware he was committing an offence.
The charge relates to a paragraph in a novel he wrote four years ago, 'Verisimilitude', which referred to an un-named Thai Crown Prince. Thailand's monarchy is sheltered from public debate by some of the world's most stringent lese-majeste laws.
Shackled in leg irons, and wearing the orange pyjamas which are standard issue in Thai prisons, a tearful Harry Nicolaides told reporters before the verdict that he felt like he was in a bad dream. A 'bad dream'
An "Alice in Wonderland experience", he called it. Harry Nicolaides was arrested as he was leaving the country last August.
In court he pleaded guilty, although he has always insisted he never intended any offence in the brief passage of his novel that referred to the scandalous lifestyle of an un-named Crown Prince. His self-published book, called Verisimilitude, was hardly well-received; in fact the only copy whose whereabouts are known sits on the shelf of the Thai National Library, still freely available to the public.
"He has written a book that slandered the king, the crown prince and Thailand and the monarchy," a judge told the court. Shackled in leg irons, and wearing standard-issue prison pyjamas, Nicolaides pleaded guilty to the charges against him at Bangkok's Criminal Court on Monday.
'Unspeakable suffering' King Bhumibol is revered in ThailandHe was quickly found guilty, with a judge telling the court: "He has written a book that slandered the king, the crown prince and Thailand and the monarchy."
By his own account the book, written four years ago, only sold seven copies. The court initially sentenced him to six years in jail, but reduced the term because of his guilty plea.
The only one known to exist now sits on the shelf of the Thai National Library, still freely available to the public. Before the trial Nicolaides had seemed stunned by what was happening to him, describing it is like a ''bad dream''.
King Bhumibol is revered in ThailandAccording to the BBC's correspondent in Bangkok, Jonathan Head, it is not clear why the Thai authorities have decided to deal so severely with Nicolaides. But he is just one of a growing number of people being investigated and charged under Thailand's draconian lese-majeste law, as the police and army try to suppress what they fear is a rising tide of anti-monarchy sentiment.
He has been denied bail four times, and said he had endured "unspeakable suffering" in the five months since his arrest. More than 3,000 websites have now been blocked, and one political activist was jailed for six years in November for an anti-monarchy speech she made just a stone's throw from the old royal palace last July.
It is rare for foreigners to be prosecuted under the draconian lese majeste law, although the number of Thais who have been charged has risen sharply over the past year, as the military has ordered better protection of the monarchy's image. Several other people are now awaiting trial.
Our correspondent says that quiet criticism of the monarchy has increased, as some members of the royal family have appeared to take sides in the political conflicts that have shaken the country in recent months. As a repentant foreigner, Harry Nicolaides does at least have a good chance of being pardoned by the king, according to the BBC correspondent in Bangkok, Jonathan Head.
The military is also anxious about how it manages the succession to King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who has been on the throne for 62 years and enjoys almost god-like veneration among the public. The kind did the same for a Swiss man given a 10-year sentence two years ago for defacing his portrait.