22 July 2016•Update: 23 July 2016
By Max Constant
BANGKOK
Thai police arrested Friday the wife and three-year-old son of a British lecturer known for his criticism of the Southeast Asian country’s establishment figures.
The passports of the mother and child were also confiscated as they stand accused of involvement in the production of “lese-majeste content” deemed insulting to the monarchy.
Pol. Gen. Thitirat Nongharnphithak, Central Investigation Bureau commissioner, told local reporters, “we are investigating them for cooperating with Thais who live overseas to produce lese-majeste content on social media.”
He mentioned an incident in which Andrew McGregor Marshall, a former Thailand-based journalist who now lives in the U.K., posted on his Twitter account an article by German newspaper Bild Zeitung about Thai Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn’s behavior during a trip to the German city of Munich.
Thai police said the pictures accompanying the article were doctored.
“If we find that she [Marshall’s wife] has no involvement in spreading materials then she is free to go," said Nongharnphithak. "We know there are about 30 people who make and distribute these images. They live overseas and they should use this opportunity to stop."
The family’s Bangkok house was searched early in the morning by 20 police officers who seized several computers and passports.
After an interrogation at the Bureau, Noppawan Bunluesilp and her son, Charlie, were detained incommunicado, according to the Khaosod news website.
Marshall reacted to the arrest with a post on his Facebook page saying he was “hearbroken”.
“Whatever the Thai junta thinks of me and my journalism, Ploy [Bunluesilp’s nickname] and Charlie are completely innocent and have done nothing wrong,” he wrote. “If Thai authorities believe I broke the law they should seek to extradite me, not harass my family.”
Thailand’s lese-majeste law is one of the harshest in the world, and its criminal code punishes with jail terms between 3-15 years persons who “insult, defame or threaten the king, the queen, the heir, or the regent”.
In the last ten years, judges have tended to interpret the law broadly.
A man criticizing a 19th century king has been jailed, as has another who mocked on Facebook a dog belonging to the current King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
Since a 2014 coup, military courts have charged 57 people with lese-majeste, with 44 charged for online commentary.
