Australian writer jailed in Thailand for dissing royalty
Harry Nicolaides, an Australian expatriate living in Thailand, has been sentenced to three years for lèse-majesté. He was arrested last August and charged with insulting the monarchy in a single paragraph of his 2005 novel Verisimilitude. At trial this week, Mr Nicolaides was initially sentenced to six years, but his term was halved because he pleaded guilty and apologised to the royal family.
The book was self-published and sold only seven copies when first released. The offending paragraph refers to an unnamed fictional “Crown Prince” who had many wives and concubines, some of whom he treated disgracefully. (The paragraph’s full text can be found about halfway down this page.)
Freedom Against Censorship Thailand thinks the prosecution of Harry Nicolaides is a part of a larger plan to intimidate the Thai people.
So why did Thai government seek to pursue its lèse majesté case against Harry Nicolaides? They did it to appear tough, to declare open war on any commentary surrounding the monarchy and to create a climate of fear in Thailand in which censorship would be accepted as necessary. They picked a weak target to demonstrate even foreigners were not immune.
The conviction and sentence are major news in Australia. Nicolaides’s family is blasting the Australian government for not doing more to keep him out of jail. The foreign minister has asked the Thai government to pardon him.
In Thailand, however, the media are barely reporting the controversy because they don’t want to risk being perceived as criticising the royal family.
Strangely, the book has not been formally banned and is available at Thailand’s National Library.
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