Sentence halved from 50 times for 18 posts made on Twitter
PUBLISHED: 14 Mar 2024 at 15: 35
According to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights ( TLHR ), a transgender woman has been given a total sentence of 25 years in prison for her role in computer crimes and royal defamation.
The Southern Bangkok Criminal Court rendered the decision on Thursday in the case against a 26-year-old defendant who was only identified as” Maggie.”
According to the attorneys, 18 information about the royal institution were posted on Twitter between December 2022 and October 2023.
Fourteen of the texts were infringed on the Computer Crime Act, Section 112, and the Lese-majeste Law. Just the Computer Crime Act was violated by four additional information.
The judge sentenced the Yasothon native to three times for each of the first 14 matters, for a total of 42 years, and two times each for the other four beliefs, bringing the total to 50 times. Because the plaintiff confessed, the sentence was reduced to 25 times, the attorneys said.
Since being detained by Unique Branch police on October 20, 2013, Maggie has been kept in prison at the Bangkok Remand Prison. Her attorneys claimed that she was immediately interrogated without a solicitor present because her mobile phone was taken away so she was able to contact anyone.
When officers gave her facts of the charges against her, she claimed she had signed a statement out of fear, as her attorneys quoted her as saying.
Maggie was born into a farming family in Yasothon, but she only attended Mathayom 3 ( Grade 9 ) of her secondary education. She later moved to Bangkok, where she worked in a restaurant. She found part-time job at a department store after losing her career during the pandemic, but struggled from month to month.
She told her attorneys that she started getting more interested in elections in 2018 as someone who was affected by state laws. She began attending some of the pro-democracy gatherings that were just beginning to take place in opposition to the military-linked leadership in 2020.
Since the start of the Free Youth demonstrations in July 2020, 1, 951 people have been charged for social participation and appearance, according to TLHR data from TLHR data dating back to February 29 this season. At least 268 are facing charges of libel under Part 112, and 150 are facing sedition charges under Part 112.