By TODD PITMAN
Thursday, Sep 12, 2013 01:00 PM +0700
BANGKOK (AP) — Thanawat Martnok and his little brother have
argued most of their lives — about their struggling business, about politics,
even about their dogs. Thanawat says that’s because his little brother “just never
listened.”
And so, one day three years ago, Thanawat decided to teach
his sibling a lesson. He told police Yuthapoom Martnok had defamed Thailand’s
monarch — an extraordinarily grave allegation here that instantly escalated a
simple family feud into an issue the justice system views as threat to the
stability of the kingdom itself.
Yuthapoom was indicted on charges of “lese majeste” —
insulting the royal family — a crime punishable by up to 15 years behind bars.
Denied bail on national security grounds, he has been jailed for a year in a
Bangkok prison where he is anxiously awaiting the court’s verdict Friday.
Such charges were once rare in Thailand, but they have
become more common since a 2006 military coup intensified a bitter societal
divide in the Southeast Asian country. Critics complain that lese majeste laws
are vulnerable to being abused by political rivals to destroy enemies.
Yuthapoom’s case is unusual, and worrying to some, not only
because it pits one brother’s word against another, but because the alleged
transgressions are said to have occurred in private, in the sanctity of their
home. Thanawat is his brother’s only accuser, and other relatives say
Yuthapoom is innocent.
“It’s a bizarre case that shows lese majeste can be used
not just as a political weapon, but in any kind of conflict — even one
involving a family,” said Chiranuch Premchaiporn, a Thai webmaster who
received an eight-month suspended sentence last year over Internet comments
that prosecutors deemed insulting to the crown. She was accused not of posting
the comments, but of deleting them too slowly from her news website.
Chiranuch said Yuthapoom’s case “shows how easily the law
can be abused. It also shows why we need to reform it.”
Yuthapoom staunchly denies the charges, saying he would
never defame King Bhumibol Adulyadej or the royal family. The king, who
ascended to the throne in 1946 and is now the world’s longest-serving monarch,
is 85 and ailing but remains widely beloved in the nation of 66 million.
Thailand is a constitutional monarchy, and its government is run by an elected
parliament and prime minister.
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Yuthapoom said his elder brother falsely accused him in a
bid to seize the car-cleaning-liquid business the siblings once ran together.
Thanawat now controls the business.
“This is a family feud that has been blown way out of
proportion,” Yuthapoom, 36, told The Associated Press at Bangkok’s Remand
Prison. “I can’t believe my own brother would do this to me. I’m still trying
to grasp how it came to this.”
Interviews with the siblings, their sister and Yuthapoom’s
wife paint a long history of enmity between the brothers.
Thanawat, 38, said that while growing up in northeastern
Thailand, he clashed with his brother “all the time” because they were so
different.
Thanawat was the quieter of the two, an introvert who never
drank and never smoked. Yuthapoom, on the other hand, was loud and guzzled
alcohol often after work, according to his family.
Nevertheless, the two ended up living together in a
three-bedroom Bangkok house from 2006 until 2009, along with Yuthapoom’s wife
and Thanawat’s girlfriend. The brothers often fought; Thanawat said he was
especially angry over the many discounts Yuthapoom gave to clients.
After one skirmish in 2009, Yuthapoom drew a knife; he
claims it was self-defense because Thanawat kicked him in the chest. The
police were called, but no charges were filed. Then Thanawat moved out for
good.
A month later, Thanawat filed an official lese majeste
complaint, alleging that Yuthapoom had cursed the king months before the knife
incident as the pair watched him on television. He also accused Yuthapoom of
scrawling a two-word insult against the monarch on a video CD around the same
time.
Pinyo Ruaylarp, the brothers’ 42-year-old sister, said the
officer who received the complaint initially tried to dissuade Thanawat from
filing it, believing it to be nothing more than a venomous family spat since
it was filed well after the alleged crimes occurred. But she said Thanawat was
adamant, and the complaint duly made its way to the Office of the Attorney
General.
Media operating in Thailand cannot publish the content of
the alleged insults because doing so would also be a violation of the
country’s lese majeste laws.
Thanawat told AP that he didn’t report Yuthapoom’s
transgressions right away “because I thought he could still listen, that he
could change.” But their last fight was so severe he decided he had no choice.
“There was no other way to talk sense into him,” Thanawat
said in the living room of his small Bangkok home, where a portrait of the
king hangs on the wall. “He had to be taught a lesson.”
Thanawat said that although he has argued with his brother
about many things unrelated to the king, his allegation is true. The interests
of the nation and the monarchy “are important than family,” he said.
Pinyo said the case has devastated their mother, On
Suthison. She testified that she had never heard Yuthapoom defame the crown
and didn’t believe he could do so, according to defense lawyer Saovalux
Pongam, who has taken the case pro-bono. On testified that Yuthapoom loved the
king dearly and often lit candles at home to commemorate his birthday.
David Streckfuss, an American expert on lese majeste at
Thailand’s Khon Kaen University, called the case exceptional not only because
“they obviously have some family issues to resolve,” but because the alleged
crimes occurred in the privacy of the brothers’ household.
Most lese majeste trials in Thailand have involved
defamation that occurred in the public domain — through a speech, on the
Internet, or in one instance by spray-painting graffiti over outdoor portraits
of the king. Streckfuss said one foreigner had also been charged for insulting
the monarchy during a private conversation overheard in a restaurant.
“Hopefully this will not be a new trend,” Streckfuss said.
He said that if Yuthapoom is convicted Friday, “it will be a significant step
toward extending lese majeste coverage, something that says that what goes on
in the privacy of your own home is no longer private.”
The case already has taken a toll, and not solely on
Yuthapoom. Thanawat is now estranged from the rest of his family.
Their mother, Thanawat said bitterly, “always liked
Yuthapoom best.”
___
Associated Press writer Thanyarat Doksone contributed to
this report.
