In March, the number of lèse-majesté lawsuits filed since 2020 surpassed 300, with six new cases filed last month. More individuals are being imprisoned due to denial bail requests. Additionally, the police has pursued charges against participants of public assemblies, such as the P-Move protest during Srettha’s government era. Charges under the Emergency Decree are […]
Political prosecution continued at the end of 2023, where, despite few new lawsuits, witness and verdict hearings have taken place routinely for the existing cases filed between 2020 and 2022. The courts have passed judgments in at least 12 lèse-majesté cases, resulting in dismissals as well as guilty rulings, whereas all nine Emergency Decree and […]
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (Working Group), a special mechanism under the UN Human Rights Council, has published its opinion on 23 October 2023 (A/HRC/WGAD/2023/49) regarding the case of “ Tawan” Tantawan Tuatulanon, a 21-year-old student and activist who was prosecuted under Section 112 for defamation of the King. The Working Group […]
PROFILE: Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) was established two days following the coup in 2014 by a group of human rights lawyers and social activists. Initially, an ad-hoc organization, TLHR aimed to provide legal and litigation assistance to individuals who had been summoned, arrested, and detained by the military as a result of the […]
Thai Lawyers for Human Rights 26 April 2023 Introduction Thailand’s longstanding political conflict is the result of an imbalanced management of power relations and structure among the state, the people, and various interest groups. This has inevitably affected the country’s political stability and allowed certain actors to resort to an undemocratic means to seize power. […]
On 30 March 2023, the Central Juvenile and Family Court acquitted Sainam of offenses under Sections 112 (lèse-majesté), 217 (arson), and 358 (destruction of property) of the Criminal Code. The judgment stated that the prosecution failed to prove that the perpetrator who vandalized and set fire to the King’s portrait was Sainam. The Court, however, […]
Two months into the new year as Thailand is gearing towards a general election, over a hundred cases related to political expression and assemblies are still set to go to trial. In the past month, at least six new lèse-majesté cases have been reportedly initiated, while six cases related to the protests in 2020 – […]
On 9 March 2023, the Criminal Court denied Pimsiri Petchnamrob’s request to appeal its previous decision to not grant Pimsiri permission to leave Thailand in order to attend meetings at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, later this month. As part of her bail condition in a lèse-majesté case, Pimsiri is prohibited […]
On 7 March 2023, the Taling Chan Criminal Court convicted “Tonmai” (alias)—a 26-year-old lawyer in a private company—under Section 112 (lèse-majesté) of the Criminal Code and sentenced him to 3 years in prison for mocking and defaming the King by delivering calendars with cartoons of a yellow duck to the buyers. His sentence was decreased […]
According to TLHR, as of 20 February 2023, at least 3 people were detained for their political expressions or for politically motivated reasons. Eleven political detainees from 2022 spent the passing of the year in jail. Four of them requested bail at least 18 times, whereas 3 were detained during trial for more than 300 […]
