ASIA: Australian jailed for three years for insulting Thai king
19 Jan 2009 6:40 PM
BANGKOK, Jan 19 AFP - A Thai court on Monday sentenced an Australian writer to three years in jail after finding him guilty of insulting Thailand's revered royal family in a novel, a judge said.
Harry Nicolaides, 41, had pleaded guilty to the charge earlier on Monday. He has been in custody for nearly five months.
"He was found guilty under criminal law article 112 and the court has sentenced him to six years, but due to his confession, which is beneficial to the case, the sentence is reduced to three years," a judge told the court.
"He has written a book that slandered the king, the crown prince and Thailand and the monarchy," the judge added.
Article 112 refers to Thailand's harsh "lese majeste" laws protecting the monarchy from insult, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years.
Nicolaides, who had previously worked as a university lecturer in northern Thailand, was detained at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport departure lounge on August 31 on an arrest warrant issued two-and-a-half years earlier.
The charge relates to a passage in a novel titled "Verisimilitude" published by Nicolaides in 2005 that was considered offensive to the Thai monarchy.
