Bangkok: Two young Thais accused of insulting the monarchy in a university play braced for sentencing today as the ruling junta intensifies its crackdown on perceived royal slurs under the kingdom's controversial lese majeste law.

Student Patiwat Saraiyaem, 23, and activist Porntip Mankong, 26, pleaded guilty to defamation after their arrest last August, nearly a year after "The Wolf Bride", a satire set in a fictional kingdom, was performed at Bangkok's Thammasat University.