Yingluck govt record on LM was worse than Abhisit’s
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In his latest letter (‘Hundreds jailed for LM in Abhisit’s reign of terror’, Letters February 14), Eric Bahrt attacks former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, writing “Before he became Prime Minister the lese majeste law was [rarely] used to put
Most LM cases, however, were not actually filed by the government. As everyone is well aware, anyone can file an LM case. Furthermore, as noted by Thailand’s foremost expert on LM in the book “King Bhumibol Adulyadej A Life’s Work”, LM cases had been rising markedly since 2005, four years before Abhisit came to power.
While the number of cases did reach an initial high under the Abhisit administration, his successor broke that record. As noted by a Red-leaning columnist in a rival paper on February 11, 2014, “The number of people charged with lese majeste under the Yingluck administration now exceeds those charged under its Democrat predecessor.” A simple Google search for that sentence will confirm it.
Get your facts straight, Eric Bahrt.
Isaac Stone
