The Appeals Court on Wednesday reversed the lower court's acquittal and handed down a five-year jail sentence on Noppawan Tang-udomsuk for lese majeste.
Noppawan Tang-udomsuk, centre, is detained by court officers at the Appeals Court on Wednesday. She was sentenced to five years in prison for posting messages in 2008 on the Thai Prachatai news website's web board deemed offensive to the monarchy. (Reuters photo)
The prosecution initially indicted Noppawan in the Criminal Court for insulting the monarchy and violating the Computer Crime Act.
On Oct 15, 2008, Noppawan posted public messages deemed offensive to the monarchy on the website prachatai.com.
The lower court ruled the IP address and the telephone number used to connect to the net to post the message belonged to Noppawan's mother, but there were no witnesses or evidence to prove she posted the message.
The court said the evidence cited by the prosecution was questionable, and it gave Noppawan the benefit of the doubt and dismissed the charge.
The prosecution appealed the judgement.
The Appeals Court found the evidence shown by the prosecution was solid enough to find Noppawan guilty and sentenced her to five years in prison.