Two young Thais accused of insulting the monarchy in a university play braced for sentencing Monday as a crackdown continues against perceived royal slurs under the lese majeste law.
The verdict is due at the Criminal Court.
Student Patiwat Saraiyaem, 23, and activist Porntip Mankong, 26, pleaded guilty to defamation after their arrest last August, nearly a year after The Wolf Bride, a satire set in a fictional kingdom, was performed at Thammasat University.
They were each charged with one count of lese majeste linked to the play, which marked the 40th anniversary of a pro-democracy student protest at the university that was brutally crushed by the military regime on Oct 6, 1976.
Police are hunting for at least six others involved in the performance. All face a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
Of those on the wanted list, at least two have fled Thailand, joining dozens of academics, activists and political opponents of the coup in self-exile amid a surge in royal defamation cases since the military seized power May 22.
The Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights claims at least 40 people have been arrested since the coup, seven of whom have already been sentenced to between three and 15 years in prison.
Critics say the lese majeste law has been used as a tool to suppress political dissent, noting that many of those charged have been linked to the opposition red shirt movement.
Rights activists as well as local and international media are forced to censor discussion of cases as repeating details of charges is considered the same offence as the original statement.
The Wolf Bride was performed in October, 2013, several months before the coup, but the case is just one of many driven by the junta, which is bolstering its self-designated role as protector of the monarchy.
Recent convictions include a taxi driver jailed for two-and-a-half years after his passenger recorded their conversation on a mobile phone, and a student, 24, sentenced to the same period of time for defaming the monarchy in a message posted on Facebook.