In theaters across Thailand, movies are always preceded by an on-screen anthem honoring King Bhumibol Adulyadej and the audience springs to their feet.
But activist Chotisak Onsoong says requiring the practice violates his freedom of choice, and he is willing to risk a 15-year jail term to make his point.
Police said on Friday they are pressing ahead with an investigation of Chotisak on a complaint of lese majeste — insulting the monarchy — for his failure to stand for the Royal Anthem in an incident last September that prompted an angry confrontation with fellow moviegoers.
The case is apparently the first deliberate challenge to the strict lese majeste law in a country where the 80-year-old king is almost universally revered as a selfless and hardworking benefactor of the people.
Chotisak and his girlfriend were summoned to hear the formal complaint against them this week, said Colonel Wallop Patummuang, the officer in charge of the case.
“We are now collecting evidence to see if there is enough to prosecute them,” Wallop said on Friday.
Chotisak said it should be a matter of free choice whether he sits or stands during the music, and his failure to stand up has nothing to do with disrespecting the king.
“Thai society tells everyone in the world that this is a democratic society,” he said. “I think everyone in Thailand should respect differences, the way of other people’s thinking.”
Thailand is a constitutional monarchy, but has severe lese majeste laws, mandating a jail term of three to 15 years for “whoever defames, insults or threatens the king.”
Actual prosecutions are relatively rare.
The issue was highlighted last year when a Swiss man was given a 10-year prison sentence for defacing images of the revered monarch.
He was pardoned by the king after serving about a month behind bars.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to