American academic faces years in jail after charged with insulting Thai monarchy(cnn.com)
cnn.com
American academic faces years in jail after charged with insulting Thai monarchy
https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/08/asia/thailand-lese-majeste-paul-chambers-intl-hnk/index.html
5 comments
>The 1880 queen and her daughter were drowning but no one could save them because looking at or touching the queen was forbidden by commoners. So they drowned while screaming for help.
Seems to be a myth: "There is an often repeated myth that the many witnesses to the accident did not dare to touch the queen, a capital offense—not even to save her life. However, this was not the case; the King's diary records that boatmen dived into the water, pulled the queen and her daughter from the entangling curtains, and carried them to another boat, where attendants worked in vain to resuscitate them."
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunanda_Kumariratana
Seems to be a myth: "There is an often repeated myth that the many witnesses to the accident did not dare to touch the queen, a capital offense—not even to save her life. However, this was not the case; the King's diary records that boatmen dived into the water, pulled the queen and her daughter from the entangling curtains, and carried them to another boat, where attendants worked in vain to resuscitate them."
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunanda_Kumariratana
When in Rome do as the Romans - it's no that hard.
Except as it mentions in the article, the accused denies that he wrote or published the material in question.
Thailand's lese majeste law applies to people outside Thailand because it concerns data about people from Thailand, just like the EU's GDPR.
“The courts seem not to recognise the principle of granting defendants the benefit of the doubt. Judges have said accusers did not have to prove the factuality of the alleged lèse-majesté material but only claim it is defamatory. Pleading guilty, then asking for a royal pardon, is seen as the quickest route to freedom for any accused.”
Thai people won’t say a thing about the king digitally or in person for fear of the law.
How strict the laws are about the royals story: The 1880 queen and her daughter were drowning but no one could save them because looking at or touching the queen was forbidden by commoners. So they drowned while screaming for help.
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A8se-majest%C3%A9_in_Thailan...