Thai lawyer jailed after calling for monarchy reform
17 January 2024 - 16:35
byPanarat Thepgumpanat and Panu Wongcha-um
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Panupong "Mike Rayong" Jadnok, Parit "Penguin" Chiwarak, Panusaya "Rung" Sithijirawattanakul and Arnon Nampa, a rights lawyer and protest leader arrive to report themselves to police summons to acknowledge additional charges of Article 112 for actions deemed as insult to the monarchy, at a police station in Bangkok in this November 30 2020 file photo. Picture: REUTERS/ATHIT PERAWONGMETHA
Bangkok — A Thai court sentenced a jailed activist lawyer to four years in prison on Wednesday for royal insults from a 2021 social media post, his lawyer said, in one of the country’s high-profile lèse-majesté cases.
Human rights lawyer Arnon Nampa, 39, has been serving a four-year sentence since last September after a criminal court found him guilty over remarks about the monarchy at a speech during a 2020 rally. The sentences will run consecutively, so he will serve eight years, local media said.
Thailand’s lèse-majesté law protects the palace from criticism and carries a maximum jail sentence of up to 15 years for each perceived royal insult, a punishment widely condemned by international human rights groups as extreme.
Wednesday’s verdict is the second of 14 cases against Arnon, a lawyer-turned-protest leader of a youth-led democracy movement that held protests in Bangkok in 2020, calling for reform of the monarchy.
“Arnon has denied wrongdoing,” his lawyer Kritsadang Nutcharat said, adding that his team will lodge an appeal and if necessary, take the case to the supreme court.
Arnon has chosen not to request bail for his cases and stayed in jail after the court rejected a previous request on the grounds that he would escape.
The verdict against Arnon is a setback for groups seeking to amend the lèse-majesté law, a key policy proposal from Thailand’s progressive Move Forward Party that won an election last May but was blocked from forming a government by legislators backed or appointed by the ultraroyalist military.
At least 262 people have been charged with lèse-majesté offences since 2020 according to legal aid group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights.
Most of those cases are related to the youth-led democracy movement, which has since lost momentum having once posed one of the biggest challenges to Thailand’s royalist, conservative establishment.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Thai lawyer jailed after calling for monarchy reform
Bangkok — A Thai court sentenced a jailed activist lawyer to four years in prison on Wednesday for royal insults from a 2021 social media post, his lawyer said, in one of the country’s high-profile lèse-majesté cases.
Human rights lawyer Arnon Nampa, 39, has been serving a four-year sentence since last September after a criminal court found him guilty over remarks about the monarchy at a speech during a 2020 rally. The sentences will run consecutively, so he will serve eight years, local media said.
Thailand’s lèse-majesté law protects the palace from criticism and carries a maximum jail sentence of up to 15 years for each perceived royal insult, a punishment widely condemned by international human rights groups as extreme.
Wednesday’s verdict is the second of 14 cases against Arnon, a lawyer-turned-protest leader of a youth-led democracy movement that held protests in Bangkok in 2020, calling for reform of the monarchy.
“Arnon has denied wrongdoing,” his lawyer Kritsadang Nutcharat said, adding that his team will lodge an appeal and if necessary, take the case to the supreme court.
Arnon has chosen not to request bail for his cases and stayed in jail after the court rejected a previous request on the grounds that he would escape.
The verdict against Arnon is a setback for groups seeking to amend the lèse-majesté law, a key policy proposal from Thailand’s progressive Move Forward Party that won an election last May but was blocked from forming a government by legislators backed or appointed by the ultraroyalist military.
At least 262 people have been charged with lèse-majesté offences since 2020 according to legal aid group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights.
Most of those cases are related to the youth-led democracy movement, which has since lost momentum having once posed one of the biggest challenges to Thailand’s royalist, conservative establishment.
Reuters
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