AN April Fool’s tweet by staff at budget airline Thai Vietjet could lead to criminal charges after an activist lawyer filed a complaint with police alleging it had insulted Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn.Police will decide later whether to pursue a criminal case under strict lese majeste laws – which make defaming the monarchy punishable by up to 15 years in prison – against staff of the airline, an offshoot of Vietnam’s Vietjet Aviation JSC.Thai Vietjet’s official account tweeted on April 1 that the airline was launching a new international route between the Thai province of Nan and Munich in Germany, which stirred online anger and threats of boycotts among ultra-royalists.
The tweet was later removed and the airline apologised the next day, saying senior management had not known about the tweet that advertised a “flight route between a province in Thailand and a city in Europe, which led to many public reactions”.The tweet did not mention King Vajiralongkorn, 69, who has a home in Germany where he spends time with Royal Noble Consort Sineenat Wongvajiraphakdi, who was born in Nan province.
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