Harry Nicolaides

Thailand has very specific rules about what can or cannot be said in a public forum regarding many issues that are embedded in the foundation of their country in their constitution, among them being insults to the royal family and Buddhism. Despite this rule being set in the constitution, I am still shocked to see that it is actually being enforced.

According to the BBC News, Australian writer Harry Nicolaides was arrested on charges of insulting the royal family in a novel he wrote over four years ago. The book, entitled Verisimilitude, insults the monarchy in a passage that refers to an “unnamed prince.” Nicolaides was unaware that he committed a crime when writing his novel. He was arrested as he was leaving Thailand last August, and has since then been kept in a Thai prison, shackled in leg irons ever since.

Before pleading guilty to this charge, it was expected that Nicolaides would receive six years in jail for his crime, but because he entered a guilty plea, his sentence has been reduced to three years.

I think it is interesting that without this trial, very few people would have probably ever seen this insult to the monarchy, because overall the book has only sold seven copies in its entire time of being published, and now because of this extra attention, more people are aware of it than ever. I also find it interesting that despite the insult being worth throwing a man in jail, the book can reportedly still be found in the one library that held a copy of it.

Watch this video of Nicolaides being held in the Thai prison where he repeatedly calls the ordeal “a bad dream.”