AFP - The elderly leader of a faction of Thailand's anti-government "Red Shirt" protest movement was arrested Tuesday and charged with insulting the monarchy, police said.
Surachai Damwattananusorn, 69, was picked up at his home in the capital on lese majeste charges related to a speech he made on December 8 last year, Colonel Anat Kledmanee of Bangkok Metropolitan police said.
The leader of the radical Red Siam movement was taken to the Criminal Court and remanded in custody for 12 days.
"He vowed to fight his case and will only speak to the court," Anat added.
Lese majeste -- insulting the monarchy -- is a serious charge in Thailand. Anyone can file a complaint, and police are duty-bound to investigate it in a country where the king is treated with almost religious adulation.
The royal family is an extremely sensitive topic in the politically turbulent nation, where street protests in April and May 2010 by Red Shirts culminated in the deaths of over 90 people in clashes with armed troops.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest reigning monarch and revered as a demi-god by many Thais, has been hospitalised since September 2009.
Rights groups have expressed concern that Thailand is using the lese majeste rules to suppress freedom of speech.
A Thai website editor is currently facing a high profile trial over accusations she failed to remove reader comments about the royal family posted on her site swiftly enough -- charges that could see her locked up for decades.
Earlier this month, a Thai appeals court overturned an 18-year jail sentence handed to a political activist for allegedly insulting the monarchy, on the grounds that she did not have an open hearing. There is expected to be a retrial.
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