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Thai courts sentenced, on Wednesday, a man to four years and five months in jail for photoshopping photos that were deemed to be disrespectful to the monarch. Â
The Criminal Court in Thonburi said Supakorn Pinijbuth, 21, used two Facebook accounts to post several photoshopped posts between April 10 and 23 that violated the country’s strict lese majeste laws.
The court said his social media posts have caused social conflict and threatens stability of the nation.
Initially, the court had sentenced him to one year in jail for each of the social media post. However, Supakorn confessed so the sentenced was reduced to 6 months for each post.
Rights legal group, Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) said on Tuesday that Supakorn’s case happened before Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha’s government said it would reuse the lese-majeste law in November.
Human rights organizations have condemned the Prayut government’s uses of various laws such as the Computer Crime Act, the state of emergency decree, sedition and the lese-majeste law to suppress dissidents and anti-government protesters.