In January 2014, Prachatai reported on the release of a Saudi Arabian lese majeste convict Ibrahim Fahad A. Absubaie who was freed “last week after receiving a royal pardon.” He was deported.
Prachatai says that he “was sentenced to two years in jail for posting rumours about the king’s health on an investors’ webboard in August 2010.” It is stated by THe UN High Commissioner for Human Rights that he was charged after a complaint from a company.
Ibrahim, who is 42, and his family face a bleak future. The authorities are now about to deport him and blacklist him, leaving his wife and son in Thailand. She says the “fragile ties between Thailand and Saudi Arabia [due to the unresolved Saudi gems and murders cases], it will be nearly impossible for his wife to register their marriage certificate and stay with him in the Middle Eastern country…”.
Ibrahim was previously an investor, and when he posted on an investors’ web forum at a securities company, the company filed a police complaint.
The Court of First Instance in March 2012 found Ibrahim guilty under Article 112 of the Criminal Code, or lèse majesté law, and Article 14 of the Computer Crime Act, and sentenced him to two years in prison. The Appeal Court in August 2013 affirmed the decision and did not grant him bail. He and his family then decided to request a royal pardon. He was granted the pardon on January 22, 2014.
Political Prisoners in Thailand 