UDD member jailed for lese majeste

The Appeals Court today reversed the suspended jail sentence ruled by the Criminal Court on a redshirt member and put her in jail for one year for lese majeste offence.The court reasoned that the 65-year-old member of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), Mrs Thitinant Kaewchantranont, had committed a serious offence when she defamed the monarch during a public gathering in front of the Constitutional Court on July 13, 2012 to hear the court’s ruling of Section 291 of the draft charter whether it would topple democratic administration or not.

The Appeals Court agreed with the state attorney’s supporting reason in appealing the Criminal Court’ s suspended jail sentence that she could still control herself during the gathering.

The Appeals Court then reversed the first court’s (Criminal Court) three-year jail suspension ruling but upheld its one year imprisonment instead with no suspension.

Mrs Thitinant earlier claimed she had mental problem during the public gathering in seeking clemency from the first court to suspend her one year jail sentence.

But the Appeals Court upheld the first court’s mandate for her to report her mental treatment every six months to the behavioural control officials throughout the period of two years.