<p>A military court has sentenced an elderly man to almost 20 years in jail for royal defamation.</p> <p>On 9 August 2017, the Military Court of Bangkok handed a sentence of 18 years and 24 months in prison to Tara W., a 59-year-old seller of Thai traditional medicine accused of violating Article 112 of the Criminal Code, the lèse majesté law, after he pleaded guilty.</p> <p>He was believed to be the owner of a tourism website,&nbsp;<a href="http://103.208.24.21/">okthai.com</a>, which is now blocked by the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society.</p>

<p>A military court has postponed sentencing an elderly lèse majesté suspect who faces up to 50 years in prison after the suspect recanted his not guilty plea and confessed.</p> <p>At about 10 am on 26 June 2017, the Military Court of Bangkok postponed the sentencing of Tara W., a 59-year-old seller of Thai traditional medicine accused of violating Article 112 of the Criminal Code, the lèse majesté law, after he pleaded guilty.</p> <p>The hearing has been postponed to 9 August 2017.</p>

<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-3eb0ad1c-5239-cf60-83af-afc1526f2822">Thai police last week arrested six people who were allegedly part of a criminal organization defaming the monarchy on the internet. The group is allegedly led by a self-exiled red-shirt named “Banpodj,” with support of a financier.&nbsp;</span></p>