A Royal Offence
Australian writer Harry Nicolaides has been sentenced to three years in a Thai prison
for writing a novel that practically nobody has read. Nicolaides'
Verisimilitude had a print run of 50 copies. He sold no more than 10.
But something in the book allegedly insulted Thailand's royal family,
and that was enough to have him chained at the ankles, shaven-headed and snivelling, remorseful to the heavens but too late to avoid some time in jail.
Fair or not (and many Thais will insist that it is not), Nicolaides' pitiable image is the current face of Thailand's lese-majesty law: frivolous and disproportionate, some would say ridiculous, maybe even funny, if it weren't so chilling.
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