Oliver Jufer is not the first foreigner in Thailand to make a nuisance of himself after too many drinks, but few small-time vandals have found themselves in as much bother.

Mr Jufer, a 57-year old Swiss, faces a jail sentence of 75 years, not because of the damage he caused but because of what he damaged: posters of the country’s monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

He pleaded guilty yesterday in the city of Chiang Mai to five counts of lèse-majesté – the crime of insulting the monarchy. Mr Jufer’s prosecution draws attention to one of the most curious anomalies about Thailand: a country shockingly tolerant in some respects, but intolerant even of the slightest criticism of its Royal Family.

The crime was committed last December on the 79th birthday of King Bhumibol, the world’s longest-reigning monarch, who celebrated 60 years on the throne last summer. To honour the occasion, sales of alcohol were stopped early, and this appears to have triggered Mr Jufer’s frustration.

He was caught on surveillance cameras spraying black paint over a few of the millions of portraits of the King seen in towns and cities. After his arrest, he denied the crimes of insulting the King and defacing public property, but pleaded guilty yesterday to the five charges, each carrying a minimum sentence of three years and a maximum of fifteen.

The hearing was held behind closed doors, and Mr Jufer said nothing to journalists as he entered and left the court in orange prison overalls with his legs shackled. “Revealing the details of this case does not benefit anybody because it involves the King and the monarchy,” the prosecutor, Bhanu Kwanyuen, said. “In every Thai Constitution the King is revered and worshipped, and he cannot be insulted. Thai people cannot accept this.”

Despite the lèse-majesté laws having been on the statute books since 1959, the authorities appear exceedingly embarrassed about using them to prosecute, perhaps conscious of how anachronistic and draconian they appear. The laws have never been invoked by members of the Royal Family. Instead, individual citizens are empowered to bring charges against others. In the past few years they have been used mainly by rival politicians to accuse one another of disloyalty to the monarchy.

Ironically the only person with the nerve to question the lèse-majesté laws has been King Bhumibol. “When you say the King can do no wrong, it is wrong,” he said on his 78th birthday, a year to the day before Mr Jufer’s tantrum. “Actually I must also be criticised. Because if you say the King cannot be criticised, it means that the King is not human.”

Sensitive subjects

— In 2002 Thailand bans The Economist temporarily for suggesting the reverence to the monarchy may not be beneficial to the country

— Advertisement in 2002 by a Thai-themed lounge in Philadelphia depicting a rock’n’roll King Bhumibol in stone-encrusted sunglasses angers the Embassy

— French businessman arrested in 1994 for refusing to switch off reading light on a flight he shared with two Thai princesses

Source: Times archives

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