Arrested Thai activist to receive S Korean human rights award

Seoul: A Thai law student arrested for sharing a critical article about his country's new king that was posted on Facebook is this year's winner of South Korea's most prestigious human rights award.

Organisers for the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights Award said the parents of Jatupat "Pai Dao Din" Boonpattararaksa will receive the award on his behalf today at a ceremony in Gwangju city.

Police in Thailand arrested Jatupat in December for sharing a critical profile about King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkunan that was posted on Facebook by the Thai-language service of the BBC.

The prize was created in 2000 to honor a 1980 democratic uprising in Gwangju against South Korea's then-military dictatorship. Hundreds of people died following a violent suppression by the government.