<div>Ubon Ratchathani Court in the northeastern province in July gave an unprecedented sentence of 30 years in jail to a musician for defaming the king. </div>

<div>On 25 May 2014, three days after seizing the ruling power, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) issued the Announcement no. </div>

<div>&nbsp;</div> <div><a href="http://prachatai.org/english/node/4338">Akaradej</a>&nbsp;(last name withheld due to privacy concerns) on Tuesday pleaded guilty before the Court to posting comments deemed lèse majesté on Facebook. </div>

<div>&nbsp;</div> <div> <div>The Criminal Court on Thursday rejected a bail request on behalf of Patiwat S., who has been charged with lèse majesté because he starred in the Wolf Bride, a stage play about a fictional monarch. &nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Ratchada Criminal Court on Thursday granted a police request to detain the suspect for six more days. </div></div>

<div>&nbsp;</div> <div><em>Patiwat S., the author of this poem and a student in the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts at Khon Kaen University, was arrested on 14 August 2014 in relation to a complaint under Article 112 of the Criminal Code in Thailand, which stipulates that, “Whoever, defames, insults or threatens the King, the Queen, the Heir-apparent or the Regent, shall be punished with imprisonment of three to fifteen years.” The complaint against Patiwat is in relation to his role in a play, “The Wolf Bride,” (Jao Sao Ma Pa), performed in October 2013 at Thammasat University in Bangkok. </em></div>

<div>The Appeal Court on Friday affirmed the decision of the Court of First Instance to sentence Somyos Prueksakasemsuk to 10 years in jail for editing lèse majesté articles written by others.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Somyos Prueksakasemsuk has been detained at Bangkok Remand Prison for almost four years.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>He was found guilty of being the editor of Voice of Taksin monthly magazine which published two articles deemed to insult the King. </div>

<div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Lèse majesté cases under Article 112 of the Criminal Code have gained much attention. Hot debates have flared up every time the Court hands down verdicts on such cases and the opinions expressed tend to be highly polarized.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Part of the online debate is harbored to support a notion that “Lèse majesté is a bad law, it should be revoked”. </div>

<div>&nbsp;</div> <div> <div>The public prosecutor on Thursday indicted an undergraduate student under the lèse majesté law and the Computer Crime Act for a Facebook comment.&nbsp;</div> </div>

<div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Thai authorities reportedly planned to implement a surveillance device starting from 15 September to sniff out Thai Internet users, specifically targeting those producing and reading lèse majesté content, a report says. Although the report is yet to be confirmed, it has created greater climate of fear among media.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Prachatai has received unconfirmed reports from two different sources. </div>

<div> <div>Instead of throwing an ice bucket over one’s head, the challenge is to sing a song whose lyrics touch every free spirit.&nbsp;</div> <div> </div></div>

<div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Sulak Sivaraksa, a renowned loyalist and critic of the lèse majesté law, has condemned the suppression of freedom of expression, especially the use of the lèse majesté law to arrest and threaten civilians, academics and artists, saying the more despotic the regime is, the more people are being hunted for expressing their thoughts, while the junta leader on Friday defended the use of the draconian law.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Sulak said the recent coup affected the monarchy and that the coup junta is using Article 112 or the lèse majesté law to suppress freedom fo </div>

<div> <div> <div>The Criminal Court on Monday found a 50-year-old man guilty of lèse majesté for uploading audio clips onto 4shared.com, a file-sharing website, and sentenced him to three years in jail. Since the defendant pleaded guilty, the sentence was halved and suspended for two years.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The court found Chaleaw J. </div></div></div>