In another conviction this week, a military court in the northern province of Chiang Rai sentenced a man with a history of mental illness to five years in jail for lèse-majesté.
Samak Pantay, 48, was found guilty of slashing a portrait of the king and queen in July last year, lawyer Anon Numpa said.
“He confessed to the charge so the judge commuted the sentence to five years,” he said, adding that Samak had been medically certified as mentally ill for “more than 10 years”.
Thailand’s ultra-royalist generals have long used their self-appointed position as defenders of the monarchy to justify coups and political interventions in the country’s often turbulent politics.
But both Thai and international media must heavily self-censor when covering lèse-majesté and the monarchy – even repeating the details of charges of perceived defamation offences could mean breaking the law.
Thai authorities rarely provide details of cases, leaving rights groups to follow prosecutions across the country.
In April a businessman was jailed for 25 years for posting Facebook messages deemed to be defamatory to the monarchy, in a ruling that rights groups described as one of the harshest known.
In the same month, Thailand’s ruling military replaced martial law with new powers that retain much of the same authority but allow civilians to appeal to a higher tribunal for lèse-majesté crimes, which are still, however, tried at a military court.