I generally disapprove of lurid News Stories being regurgitated and I'm glad to see there is very little of that on this Forum.

 

However, I thought story this was rather exceptional, as it illustrates that despite us thinking that Thai law is harsh for the most serious crimes, it appears to not always be the case and that murder is apparently less seriously dealt with than we perhaps thought :

 

http://www.pattayadailynews.com/en/2013/03/15/syrian-sentenced-to-9-years-for-kiwi's-murder/

When you get 0-10 years for murder, one only has to wonder about the mindset that leads to, let alone justifies, a sentence of 15-20 years for speaking your mind (i.e., lese majeste).  I would think a person's right to exist/live might be a bit more important than somebody's hurt feelings.

 

The good news, I suppose, is that no government has figured out so far how to jail somebody for what their mind thinks.

What concerns me is that whilst there is bound to be sentencing variation within every crime, to reflect (quite rightly) the individual circumstances - this particular crime appears to have been brutal (20+ stab wounds) and pre-meditated (the assailant took the knife with him - he didn't pick it up in the victim's kitchen for example).

In other words, it seems to me at least, to have been quite far along the scale of seriousness.

 

And yet, the Thai authorities have passed what seems to be a disproportionately lenient sentence - far less, as Bob says that one might expect for making certain types of critical comments. The 50B fine for carrying the offensive weapon which the murderer then used to kill the victim is, frankly, sick.