Posted on 03/12/2007 7:47:06 PM PDT by blam
European faces jail for insulting Thai king
By A Special Correspondent in Chiang Mai
Last Updated: 2:15pm GMT 12/03/2007
A Swiss man today admitted five charges of insulting Thailand's revered king by spray-painting posters of the monarch on the evening of his birthday.
Oliver Jufer is facing up to 15 years in prison
Oliver Jufer, 57, who has been held in prison for more than three months, appeared at Chiang Mai provincial court in shackles and a brown inmate's uniform, for a secret session.
Members of the public and journalists were barred from the hearing, and earlier court officials told reporters it had been postponed in an effort to get them to leave.
Jufer, from Zurich, faces between three and 15 years in prison for lése majèste when he is sentenced later this month, the court said in a statement afterwards. His guilty plea would normally result in the penalty being halved.
Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej is the world's longest-reigning monarch, and one of the few who is still protected by tough laws that prohibit any insult to the royal family.
According to police reports, Jufer was drunk when he was denied the right to buy alcohol on the evening of Dec 5, the King's birthday and a public holiday when sales are barred.
Enraged, he bought two cans of spray paint and that night graffittied five portraits of the monarch.
The case is so sensitive that Thai media have barely covered it, after police urged local journalists not to do so.
King Bhumibol reviews a parade with Queen Sirikit
Bhanu Kwanyuen, the prosecutor, said: "It's against the King, the royal family, that's why it's serious. It doesn't do any good to tell this story to other people, because it's against the King."
Asked about his client's motives for the crime, his own defence lawyer Komkhit Kunyodying said: "I was appointed by the court. I cannot answer for him."
A spokesman for the Swiss embassy, which did not send a representative to the court, said it was too early to say whether Thai-Swiss relations would be affected.
"We are never happy when a Swiss national is in prison," he said. "If he has pleaded guilty that may complicate the issue. I think this is not a good sign."
Ping.
And the only thing that comes to mind is, "what a &#$^@(#*ing MORON!"
PS Don't feel sorry for the drunken idiot. The Thais will almost certainly let him out of jail after a couple months and kick him out of the country... for ever.
Thai King--wasn't that a TV show about a guy with an airplane?
Sorry, but the possible penalty for the drunk guy "insulting the king" is ridiculous.
They will probably let him go after a few months in a dank, unsanitary hole. He won't be allowed back to Thailand.
Thailand is one of the few places on earth where giving the King the Finger is good for a jail term.
Beat me by a couple minutes. I was gonna say, he had a neat little Saturday morning TV show, but no one ought to be arrested for insulting him!
> Sorry, but the possible penalty for the drunk
> guy "insulting the king" is ridiculous.
He's getting off lightly. If he had been caught by a crowd of nationalist Thai sorts instead of (apparently) a very understanding tourist policeman, he would likely have been beaten to death on the spot, as happened to some fruitcake on Sukhumvit who desecrated a popular shrine not too long ago.
OK, somebody's got to say it (and my first joke about "Sky King" was already taken - thank, Penny.) so..... WHAT THE HECK IS THAT THING ON HIS HEAD?!?!?
In Thai airports, this thing is clearly marked out as a big warning, right at the place where tourists step out of the plane.
What's up with the King? He looks like a Jewish guy from the Bronx.
I think it's just a big microphone.
The king is not amused.
I'm inclined to agree...but I must say that the last thing I'd ever think of doing in a foreign country with a "foreign" culture is publicly criticizing/insulting a member of that country's government or royalty
It's good to be the King...or else.
Thailand's Lese Mageste Laws are well known and enforced. You want to live there, you show respect toward the king. Screw up and you go to jail. Guy sounds like an alkey hothead like many other Farangs in Chiang Mai. No sympathy here. Thai playground, Thai rules.
WHAT THE HECK IS THAT THING ON HIS HEAD?!?!?
It's a flower pot. Poor chap is senile. No wonder you can't speak bad about him....
Oh, I agree with you there, lol, but that doesn't make the laws against insulting the king any less pathetic.
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