<p>The Supreme Court has sentenced a comedian turned red-shirt activist and politician to two years’ imprisonment for lèse majesté.</p>
<p>On 7 March 2017, at the Criminal Court on Ratchadapisek Rd., Bangkok, the Supreme Court sentenced Yotwarit Chuklom, aka. Jeng Dokjik, to two years in prison without suspending the jail term.</p>
<p>The court found Yotwarit guilty of offences under Article 112 of the Criminal Code, the lèse majesté law, for a speech and a gesture at a red-shirt United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) rally on 28 March 2010.</p>
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<div>Coup makers, since 1976 coup d’etat, have regularly cited a surge of lese majeste as a prerequisite for overthrowing an elected government. The 2006 coup, when lese majeste was cited as one of the major reasons, marked a surge of the lese majeste cases. The atrocity in April-May 2010, where almost 100 of people were killed during the military crackdown on anti-establishment red-shirt protesters, also contributed to a dramatic rise of lese majeste cases, especially the offences committed online.
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<p>The Criminal Court is likely to deliver its ruling by the end of this year on a case in which a stockbroker has been prosecuted for posting comments on Same Sky or <a href="http://prachatai.com/english/search/node/fah diew kan">Fah Diew Kan</a> webboard in 2009.</p>