A former civil servant has been sentenced to 43 years in prison for insulting the Thai monarchy

• A former civil servant in her 60s identified only as Anchan was sentenced in Thailand on Tuesday to 43 years in prison for criticizing the country's monarchy.
• Anchan pleaded guilty to being critical of the monarchy in comments and audio clips on social media, Thai Lawyers for Human Rights told The Guardian.
• The case dates back to 2015, when the government started cracking down on an anti-establishment movement following a military coup in 2014.

A woman in Thailand was sentenced on Tuesday to 43 years and six months in prison for criticizing the country's monarchy.

The woman, a former civil servant in her 60s identified only as Anchan, was accused of being critical of the monarchy in comments and audio clips on social media, Thai Lawyers for Human Rights told The Guardian.

The comments were in violation of the country's lèse-majesté law, also known as Article 112.

Anchan was found guilty on 29 counts in the case, which dates back to 2015, when the government started cracking down on an anti-establishment movement following a military coup in 2014.

She initially pleaded not guilty, saying she had just shared audio criticizing the monarchy and did not comment on it.

"I thought it was nothing. There were so many people who shared this content and listened to it. The guy (who made the content) had done it for so many years," Anchan said before her sentencing, according to the Associated Press. "So I didn't really think this through and was too confident and not being careful enough to realize at the time that it wasn't appropriate."

Anchan later pleaded guilty hoping for a more lenient sentence.

She was first sentenced to 87 years in prison, but because she pleaded guilty, the sentence was cut in half, Thai Lawyers for Human Rights told The Guardian.

Human rights groups have criticized Thailand's lèse-majesté law, which has been expanded in recent years to allow anyone to file a complaint against anyone else.

Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher for the group Human Rights Watch, told The Guardian that Anchan's sentence "sends a spine-chilling signal that not only criticisms of the monarchy won't be tolerated, but they will also be severely punished."

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