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Thailand jails man for selling calendars with yellow ducks on them
- Bangkok’s Criminal Court ruled that the pictures of cartoon ducks resembled and ridiculed Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn, diminishing his reputation
- The 26-year-old defendant, identified by the nickname Ton Mai, was charged under Thailand’s lese-majesty law and sentenced to two years in prison
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A Thai man was sentenced to two years in prison for selling calendars featuring satirical cartoons of yellow ducks that a court said mocked the country’s monarch, a legal aid group said.
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Bangkok’s Criminal Court ruled that the calendar for 2021 contained pictures of yellow ducks in poses resembling and ridiculing Thailand’s king, diminishing his reputation, the group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights said.
The defendant was charged under Thailand’s lese-majesty law, which provides for three to 15 years’ imprisonment for anyone who defames, insults or threatens the king, the queen, the heir apparent or the regent.
The legal aid group said the 26-year-old defendant, whom it identified by the nickname Ton Mai, had his sentence reduced on Tuesday to two years because he cooperated with the court.
The court declared that six illustrations in the calendar were made to mock the king.
Yellow rubber ducks were at one point a tongue-in-cheek symbol of Thailand’s pro-democracy protest movement.
The lese majesty law has long drawn criticism for its harshness and a provision allowing anyone to file a complaint, allowing its use for partisan political purposes. In recent years, it has become a focus of pro-democracy activists, who have called for it to be amended or abolished.
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