BANGKOK // The elderly parents of a former Thai princess were taken into police custody on Friday after confessing to defaming the kingdom’s royal family, an institution protected by one of the world’s toughest lese majeste laws.
The pair are the latest close relatives of fallen former Princess Srirasmi to face legal proceedings after a corruption scandal involving her family erupted late last year.
Apiruj Suwadee, 72, and his 66-year-old wife Wanthanee, told reporters that they were guilty of defaming the monarchy, lodging a malicious claim and asking officials to file false charges.
“We confess to all charges,” Wanthanee said, her head bowed as she faced the media after a meeting with Thai police.
“We plead for mercy from the royal family,” her husband added, before the couple were detained to face a bail hearing later Friday.
The police case against them centres on a former neighbour’s complaint that she had been jailed for 18 months on a fraud charge brought maliciously by the Suwadee couple.
Thailand’s Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn divorced Srirasmi and she also renounced her royal title following the scandal, which has gripped a public unused to seeing palace intrigue play out in the open.
One of her relatives Pongpat Chayapun, the former head of Thailand’s elite Central Investigation Bureau, has been slapped with a 31-year jail term for a series of convictions linked to an alleged criminal empire that spanned illegal gambling, extortion and kidnapping.
He was initially sentenced to six years in jail in January — along with his deputy — after admitting lese majeste under the feared “section 112” of Thailand’s criminal code and for corruption.
On Thursday he received another 15 years for taking bribes to transfer police to desirable posts and for oil smuggling — adding time to earlier sentences for money laundering and possession of rare wood.
Police have said Pongpat’s group had made “false claims” to be acting on behalf of an unnamed royal to aid their underworld dealings.
The spectacular demise of the former princess’s family comes at a time of heightened anxiety over the health of the country’s revered but ailing monarch.
Experts say the last decade of political turmoil in Thailand is intertwined with concerns among competing elites over the direction of the kingdom once the reign of 87-year-old King Bhumibol Adulaydej comes to an end.
Under the royal defamation law — one of the world’s strictest — anyone convicted of insulting the king, queen, heir or regent faces up to 15 years in prison on each count.
Both Thai and international media must heavily self-censor when covering the country’s lese majeste rules. Even repeating details of the charges could mean breaking the law under section 112.
* Agence France-Presse
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
SPECS
Engine: 4-litre V8 twin-turbo
Power: 630hp
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: 8-speed Tiptronic automatic
Price: From Dh599,000
On sale: Now
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Petrarch: Everywhere a Wanderer
Christopher Celenza,
Reaktion Books
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
