{"id":10663,"date":"2011-10-10T05:10:36","date_gmt":"2011-10-10T05:10:36","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-10-10T05:10:36","modified_gmt":"2011-10-10T05:10:36","slug":"US-man-to-plead-to-Thai-royal-insult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=10663","title":{"rendered":"US man to plead to Thai royal insult"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A detained U.S. citizen facing up to 15 years in prison for allegedly insulting Thailand&#8217;s royal family was to plead guilty in the case today in hopes of receiving a lenient sentence, his lawyer said.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Thai-born American Joe Gordon<\/strong>, 54, has been detained since late May on charges of translating parts of a banned biography of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and posting the links online.<\/p>\n<p><strong>This Southeast Asian kingdom has the most severe lese majeste laws in the world<\/strong>, and anyone convicted of defaming the royal family faces from three to 15 years behind bars.<\/p>\n<p>Defense lawyer Arnon Nampa said Gordon had decided last week to plead guilty after being denied bail eight times. The court was expected to issue a verdict and a sentence Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Gordon has previously denied the charges against him, according to the independent Thai-language prachatai.com news website, which has interviewed him in prison.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking briefly to reporters as he was being escorted into the courtroom on Monday, Gordon confirmed that he would plead guilty. &#8220;How can I fight?&#8221; he said, adding that the trial is &#8220;not fair.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I want the American government to help me because this is about freedom of expression,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>When in Rome! Helllo?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The U.S. Embassy has tried unsuccessfully to help Gordon, registering its public disappointment in the case in August, when prosecutors officially filed charges.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Many had hoped that the administration of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, some of whose top supporters have been accused of lese majeste charges, would re-examine the harsh sentences for lese majeste cases. Critics say the laws are frequently abused by political rivals, and the issue remains highly sensitive.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gordon reportedly lived in the U.S. state of Colorado for about 30 years before returning recently to Thailand.<\/strong> Arnon said Gordon wished to return to Colorado.<\/p>\n<p><em>Source AP, pic Reuters<\/em><br \/>\n<!--break--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A detained U.S. citizen facing up to 15 years in prison for allegedly insulting Thailand&#8217;s royal family was to plead<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-highlighted-post":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-small":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x90.jpg","colormag-featured-image":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-default-news":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","colormag-featured-image-large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-block-extra-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-small-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-medium-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"Admin","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/53e6cdc30765aade0129f85e5aeb50124b1d3f5bb9a70373be31e4eb328371e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"A detained U.S. citizen facing up to 15 years in prison for allegedly insulting Thailand&#8217;s royal family was to plead","magazineBlocksPostCategories":[],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":132,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":2,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"medium":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg",113,150,true]},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"Admin","author_link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?author=1"},"magazine_blocks_comment":0,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/53e6cdc30765aade0129f85e5aeb50124b1d3f5bb9a70373be31e4eb328371e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}