US academic arrested in Thailand for insulting monarchy – DW – 04/08/2025
www.dw.com
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.

  • El Barto@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    7 days ago

    Soooo… are all those Americans and Europeans that call themselves expats, uh, immigrants?

    • yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      11·
      6 days ago

      Not quite. Immigrants intend to stay forever, while expats don’t (in my opinion).

      That is, if these self-called “expats” do intend to stay forever and obtain citizenship they very much are immigrants who don’t want to call themselves immigrants.