He is sentenced to 10 years imprisonment....
A Swiss man was jailed for 10 years Thursday for insulting
Thailand's revered king by vandalising his portraits during a
drunken spree.
Oliver Jufer, 57, had pleaded guilty to five counts of lese majeste
-- the crime of offending the dignity of a sovereign -- for
defacing several portraits of King Bhumibol Adulyadej with spray
paint in the northern city of Chiang Mai.
He had faced up to 75 years in prison, but the court sentenced him
to 20 years and then halved the term because Jufer had
confessed.
"The court has punished him for insulting the king. This is a
serious crime, and he was sentenced to four years for each of five
counts, for a total of 20 years," judge Pitsanu Tanbuakli
said.
"Because he confessed, the court has reduced his sentence to 10
years," he said.
Jufer can appeal the ruling, but his court-appointed lawyer did not
attend the sentencing. Jufer said nothing as he entered or left the
court.
Prosecutors declined to comment on the case due to the
sensitivities of speaking about Thailand's king.
Jufer is from Zurich but has lived mainly in Thailand for the last
10 years and has married a Thai woman, according to
authorities.
Security cameras videotaped him defacing the king's portraits on
December 5, which is the king's birthday and a time of national
celebration.
Thailand has been swept up in royal fever since the king's 60th
anniversary on the throne in June last year.
The palace also became more prominent in Thai political life with a
military coup in September, which was conducted with the king's
apparent blessing.
The generals who staged the coup have repeatedly said that one of
the reasons for ousting then-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was
because he had been "impolite" to the king.
Prosecutors are investigating three claims of lese majeste against
Thaksin. A fourth charge, accusing Thaksin of praying inside a
temple reserved for royals, has already been dropped.
Thailand's king 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.
Thai law allows anyone to file a lese majeste complaint with the
police, which makes people reluctant to engage in any sort of
public conversation about the king or his family.
Portraits of the monarch, who will be 80 in December, hang in every
public buildings and shrines to him dot the sidewalks in major
cities.
Although the trial has attracted international attention, Thai
media have hardly mentioned it due to the difficulty of reporting
about the king without committing lese majeste in the process.
