SIX PEOPLE HAVE BEEN SENT TO PRISON BY A COURT IN THAILAND FOR SETTING FIRE ON THE PORTRAITS OF KING MAHA VAJIRALONGKORN AND HIS LATE FATHER.

A court in Thailand was on Wednesday sent six people (aged between 18 and 20) to jail for setting fire on the portraits of King Maha Vajiralongkorn and his late father (King Bhumibol Adulyadej). According to the report, the royal portraits were set ablaze last year (2017) in several spots around the northeastern province of Khon Kaen. The court found them guilty of arson, as well as of organized crime. One of the six was jailed for eleven and half years, three got terms of seven years and eight months each while the two 18-year-olds who set fire to only one portrait were given three years and four months each. Thailand’s lese-majeste law known as Article 112 protects members of the royal family from insult and anyone found guilty of breaking it faces up to 15 years in jail for each count of offending the king, queen, heir or regent.