A Thai woman accused of insulting the country’s late king has been forced to kneel before his portrait outside a police station on the island of Koh Samui as hundreds of people demanded an apology. The crowd, some of whom held aloft portraits of the revered monarch, jeered when she first appeared. On Friday, police and soldiers on the Thai resort island of Phuket dispersed a mob seekingto confront a man they believed had insulted the king. Thailand has draconian lèse-majesté laws that impose stiff prison sentences for actions or writings regarded as derogatory toward the monarch or his family. The operator of Thailand’s main cable TV network has blocked foreign news broadcasts deemed insensitive to the monarchy since Bhumibol’s death.

Source: The Guardian October 17, 2016 07:22 UTC