American faces 15 years in prison for blog post insulting Thai king

A United States citizen could face 15 years in prison for allegedly insulting Thailand's king--by translating an article and posting it on his blog.

Lerpong Wichaikhammat, 55, who also goes by the American name Joe W. Gordon, was arrested in May by a team of 20 Thai security agents on charges of "using the Internet to disseminate information that insults or threatens the monarchy after he translated an article and posted it on his blog," Reuters reported Monday.

Gordon, who returned to Thailand last year after living for many years in Colorado, has pled guilty to the charge, and is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 9. Gordon was born in Thailand and has dual citizenship.

"I plead guilty because no one can win the case," Gordon told journalists at his plea hearing, Reuters reported. "I have no chance. I want the American government to help release me. This is a case of freedom of expression."

Thai security police allege that Gordon "is the owner of a blog that was established four years ago (i.e. when he did not reside in Thailand) with links that allowed downloading of Paul Handley's The King Never Smiles, a book that is banned but very widely available in Thailand in English and Thai," a website advocating for Gordon's release states. "He is also alleged to have translated some articles or a part of Handley's book."

The American embassy in Thailand is reportedly providing consular assistance to Gordon, who lost his eighth bail hearing in September.

Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who has been hospitalized since 2009, is the world's oldest serving monarch. Being perceived to insult him in Thailand is a crime; even criticizing the "lese-majeste" laws banning perceived slights is a national taboo. The national news media largely neglects to report on the cases.

Thai-based academic David Streckfuss told Reuters that there has been a dramatic uptick in lese-majeste cases brought in Thailand in the last five years. He tracked 397 lese-majesty cases submitted to Thailand's criminal court between 2006 and 2009--compared to four or five cases brought a year in the decade before that.

"Lese majeste provisions in the criminal code make it a criminal offense punishable by up to 15 years' imprisonment to criticize the king, queen, royal heir apparent, or regent," the State Department's 2010 human rights report on Thailand notes. "The provisions allow private citizens to initiate lese majeste complaints against each other, and there were several cases in which private citizens did so."

A lese-majeste case was brought against two Thai social activists, Chotisak Ongsoong and Songkran Pongbunjan, "for not standing for the royal anthem in a movie theater in 2007," the State Department report notes.

There were two lese majeste cases filed in 2008 against then BBC Bangkok bureau chief Jonathan Head "for remarks Head made in 2007 at panel events at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand ... as well as a claim that his reporting over a two-year period 'damaged and insulted the reputation of the monarchy," according to the State Department report.