Sondhi Limthongkul Founder of Thailand’s Yellow Shirt Guilty of Lese Majeste

Sondhi Limthongkul, former leader of defunct People’s Alliance for Democracy has been sentenced to serve two years in jail for offending the monarchy in 2008.

 

BANGKOK – The founder of Thailand’s royalist Yellow Shirt movement has been sentenced to two years imprisonment for defaming the monarchy by repeating offensive comments made by a political opponent.

A Bangkok appeals court on Tuesday found 65-year-old media mogul Sondhi Limthongkul guilty of lese majeste for quoting remarks made by an anti-establishment activist to the crowd at a protest in 2008.

Thailand’s lese majeste law is the world’s harshest, mandating a jail term of three to 15 years. Tuesday’s action overturned a criminal court’s dismissal of the case against Sondhi on the grounds that he was only urging that the original speaker be prosecuted.

Sondhi was released after posting 500,000 baht ($15,935) in bail.

His protest movement helped trigger a 2006 coup that ushered in an extended period of political instability.