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Swiss man admits Thai king insult | |
(about 4 hours later) | |
A 57-year-old Swiss man has pleaded guilty in a court in Thailand to charges of insulting the king. | |
Oliver Jufer was arrested last December after defacing several portraits of the monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who has been on the throne for 60 years. | |
In court, Jufer pleaded guilty to five charges under Thailand's draconian lese majeste law. | |
A verdict is expected later this month. The maximum sentence he could face is 75 years in jail. | |
Oliver Jufer's lawyer says the minimum sentence he can get is seven-and-a-half years. | |
Carefully managed | |
This case throws a rare spotlight on the strict lese-majeste laws in Thailand forbidding any criticism of the monarchy. | |
The king is widely revered after 60 years on the throne | |
At one point the prosecutor tried to get the media to leave, saying the case had been postponed. | |
"We don't want the Thai people to know about this case," he said. | |
The image of the monarchy is very carefully managed, with local media only allowed to lavish praise on the king. | |
The popular reverence for him is genuine, but the draconian laws deter most Thais from even discussing the monarchy. | |
The king himself appeared to question this in a recent speech when he said it was wrong to put him above criticism. | |
"I am not afraid if the criticism concerns what I do wrong, because then I know," he said. | "I am not afraid if the criticism concerns what I do wrong, because then I know," he said. |
"If you say the king cannot be criticised, it means that the king is not human." | "If you say the king cannot be criticised, it means that the king is not human." |
But without any public debate there seems no possibility of amending the law, which allows any Thai citizen to bring a charge against anyone else for insulting the king. | |
A handful of other foreigners have faced similar charges in the past. Most have eventually been allowed to leave the country. | |