A Thai woman accused of insulting the country’s late king was forced to kneel before his portrait outside a police station as baying mob demanded she apologise.
The woman’s arrest and public shaming on Sunday was the latest of several such incidents since King Bhumibol Adulyadej died last week after a reign of 70 years, plunging Thailand into intense mourning.
Two police officers led Umaporn Sarasat, 43, to a picture of the monarch in front of Bophut police station on the tourist island of Samui, where she knelt and prayed, both on the way into the station and the way out.
The crowd, some of who held aloft portraits of the revered monarch, jeered when she first appeared. A line of police officers linked arms to keep them from surging forward.
Ms Sarasat, a small business owner, who is alleged to have posted disrespectful comments online, is expected to face charges of insulting the monarchy.
“We are going to proceed with the case as best we can,” district police chief Thewes Pleumsud told the crowd. “I understand your feelings. You came here out of loyalty to his Majesty. Don’t worry, I give you my word.”
Authorities have urged calm following criticism of people who are not wearing traditional black and white clothing to mourn the king with some arch-royalists reprimanding people in public. A government spokesman said some Thais can not afford mourning clothes and urged tolerance.
There have been reports of prices surging for mourning clothing since King Bhumibol’s death on Thursday.
Tens of thousands of Thais have descended on the Grand Palace in Bangkok where the monarch’s body is being kept, and a year of mourning has been declared by the government.
Several foreign governments have warned citizens travelling in Thailand to avoid behaviour that could be interpreted as festive, disrespectful or disorderly.
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On Friday, police and soldiers on the Thai resort island of Phuket dispersed a mob of several hundred people seeking a confrontation with a man they believed insulted the king.
