Thai monarchy row academic flees to UK

A Bangkok university lecturer said today he fled to Britain after fearing he would be jailed for up to 15 years for insulting the Thai monarchy.

Ji Ungpakorn, who has dual British and Thai nationality, said he did not believe he would get a fair trial.

Ji, a prominent political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, was charged last month over a book about Thailand's 2006 military coup.

He said today that Thailand was "inching toward a police state."

There has been a recent spate of monarchy insult prosecutions and increased censorship of websites allegedly critical of the monarchy.

Ji has been leading a campaign to abolish the law which makes compulsory a jail term of three to 15 years for defaming the king, the queen or the heir to the throne.