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BANGKOK, Thailand – A Thai military tribunal on Tuesday, August 23, indicted 8 people with sedition for running a Facebook page that mocked the kingdom’s junta chief, making them the latest victims of the regime’s crackdown on dissent.
Thailand’s generals have clamped down on politics and severely curbed free expression since their 2014 power grab, jailing scores of critics of the government and monarchy – often for comments posted on social media.
The 8 Facebook users were arrested in April by military raids in Bangkok and northeast Khon Kaen province, according to Human Rights Watch.
They now face up to 7 years in prison for running a page that featured memes and doctored photos of junta leader Prayut Chan-O-Cha – the former army chief who seized power two years ago.
“The court indicts all 8 and will later call them in for a plea,” the group’s lawyer, Winyat Chartmontree, told the Agence France-Presse.
They have been charged with sedition and violating the kingdom’s computer crime act, two broadly-worded laws that are routinely used to silence critics.
The number of computer crime, sedition and royal defamation charges have all shot up since the junta seized power in a May 2014 coup.
Some have seen jail sentences as long as 30 years for Facebook posts deemed insulting of the monarchy.
The government has defended its clampdown on free speech as an effort to heal political conflict that has ripped Thailand in two.
But critics say the junta is chiefly bent on crippling the political network loyal to the ousted government, a faction led by former premiers and siblings Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra.
The family is adored by rural supporters in Thailand’s northeast but loathed by a military-allied elite based in Bangkok.
They have won every poll in the past decade but seen two of their governments knocked down by military coups since 2006.
Each Friday Prayut delivers a nationally televised speech titled “Returning Happiness to the People.”
In his speech last week he touched on his dislike for social media.
“I have never used any online media or any social media platform to communicate with the public,” he said.
“I prefer to only meet people face to face through official channels.” – Rappler.com
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