US academic arrested in Thailand for insulting monarchy – DW – 04/08/2025
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Thailand has one of the world's strictest laws against criticizing the country's powerful monarchy. Foreigners are very rarely charged under the law, which prescribes up to 15 years in prison for those found guilty.

Summary

Thai police arrested US academic Paul Chambers on charges of insulting the monarchy and violating computer crime laws, linked to remarks made during an online seminar.

Chambers, a political science professor at Naresuan University, was summoned after a complaint by the Thai Army.

He denied the charges and was denied bail, with no trial date set. Thailand enforces strict lèse-majesté laws under Article 112, carrying up to 15 years in prison.

  • Dr. Moose@lemmy.worldEnglish
    126·
    6 days ago

    Am in Thailand rn. He was doing research on thai police and clearly got in trouble over that. The dispute is literally him answering 1 question “whether king has more power than PM” and he said “yes” - at least that’s what we currently think is happening.

    Either way thai police is been through a lot of shit rn with latest being basically thai version of Epstein killing himself in a cell and in general thai police is struggling to keep corruption hidden with such dataflow and displeasement wirh current leadership.

    I’m not thai but that’s what I hear from my thai friends here.