Police have raided a tattoo parlour and arrested two suspects accused of posting lèse majesté messages on Facebook. The suspects denied the allegation, saying someone has duplicated their Facebook account.
On 27 October 2016, police officers raided the Tan Tattoo parlour in Surat Thani Province after receiving a report that a Facebook account in the name of Rossarin Luckdeenan posted lèse majesté messages, reported Matichon Online.
The officers arrested Rossarin, aged 27, and her husband Thamphurin, aged 33, (surname withheld due to privacy reasons) and took them to Ko Pha Ngan Police Station for interrogation. The police also searched the parlour and confiscated a gun, a laptop and three mobile phones.
Rossarin denied the allegation and claimed that the Facebook account which posted the lèse majesté messages was a fake one. The authorities then released the couple and sent the evidence to IT experts for further investigation, according to Matichon Online.
If found guilty, the two will be charged under Article 112 of the Criminal Code, the lèse majesté law, and the Computer Crime Act.
There are two Facebook accounts with the name “Rossarin Luckdeenan.” The one which has the alleged lèse majesté content was created only on 26 October 2016 and the messages were posted on the same day.
The second account, which Rossarin claimed was the real one, has expressed the concern that someone had duplicated her account and used a portrait of her and her husband as a profile picture. Her friends also posted to confirm that the account really belongs to Rossarin and she had not done anything against the lèse majesté laws.
Rossarin posts pictures of the duplicated Facebook account. The post reads “Who did this to me? Everyone please help me. I’m afraid that I was slandered. Those messages are really defamatory to the King”
A similar case occurred two days earlier when Natthakan (surname withheld due to privacy concerns), a 17-year-old woman, filed a complaint at Kantang District Police Station of southern province of Trang.
She reported that images of her holding a pistol along with a message deemed defamatory to the Thai monarchy were posted in a Facebook account titled ‘Nubowwee Rak Piommee’.
The Facebook account was created on the same day that the alleged lèse majesté message was posted.
Natthakan told the police that she believed that the Facebook post was published by Nin (surname withheld due to privacy concerns), a 29-year-old transwoman whom her boyfriend had an affair with.
Police officers raid the tattoo parlor (Photo from Matichon Online)
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