A Thai court sentenced a man on Thursday to eight months in jail for spray-painting anarchist and anti-lese majeste graffiti on the wall of a royal palace complex, his lawyer said.
Suthawee Soikham, 26, was arrested last year when he sprayed an anarchist symbol and the number 112 with a line through it on an outside wall of Bangkok’s Temple of the Emerald Buddha.
Thailand’s strict royal insult laws form section 112 of the country’s criminal code, and the number is often used as shorthand for the legislation.
“The court found him guilty of violating the Ancient Monuments and Antiquities Act and sentenced him to one year with no suspension,” his lawyer told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive ruling.
The sentence was reduced to eight months because Suthawee cooperated, the lawyer said.
The incident in March 2023 was caught on video and widely reported in Thai media, as the temple forms part of the Grand Palace complex of historic royal buildings.
Two Thai journalists who covered the incident were also arrested and charged as accomplices.
Thailand has some of the world’s toughest royal defamation laws protecting King Maha Vajiralongkorn and his close family, with each charge carrying a potential 15-year prison sentence.
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