Search Results for: lese majeste

Human Rights Watch (HRW) Friday called on Thai authorities to release a 15-year-old student activist who was detained after allegedly defaming the nation’s monarchy. Thanalop “Yok” Phalanchai was arrested in Bangkok on 28 March after police accused her of criticising the monarchy during a protest rally in October 2022. She was later charged with lèse-majesté [...]

Recently, Thailand passed an important human rights law following significant pressure from many parties including NGOs, victims of torture, relatives of the dead and missing, and investigative journalists. On 24 October 2022, the King signed into law the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearances Act which Parliament enacted on 26 August 2022. This [...]

Thai human rights group iLaw, Southeast Asian internet watchdog Digital Reach and Toronto-based Citizen Lab Monday released a joint report claiming that multiple Thai democracy activists were targeted by a Pegasus spyware attack. The Pegasus software is owned by NSO Group, an Israeli firm, which claims to only sell its Pegasus software to government entities.  Pegasus is [...]

A Thailand court Friday sentenced a 33-year-old man named Narin Kulpongsathorn to two years in prison for insulting the monarchy by placing a sticker on a portrait of the king. This is the first sentencing under the country’s lèse-majesté laws in more than a year. The court found Kulpongsathorn guilty of putting a sticker bearing [...]

The Constitutional Court of Thailand ruled Wednesday that three anti-government activists who had called for a reform in the country’s powerful monarchy had violated the constitution by attempting to overthrow the institution. The ruling came in a case brought by royalist lawyer Natthaporn Toprayoon, who petitioned the court to consider whether the actions of the [...]

Thailand’s opposing party, the Pheu Thai Paty, called for amendments to the strict royal insults law in a statement on Sunday. The law in question includes lese majeste, whereby insulting a member of the royal family can lead to a 15-year prison sentence, under section 112 of the Criminal Code. The party stated that the [...]

A mass trial against 22 Thai pro-democracy activists charged under the sedition act and other provisions, including the country’s lèse-majesté (royal insult) laws, began Monday. The demonstrators have been charged for their speeches and actions at one of the youth movement’s many mass pro-democracy protests against the country’s monarchy and military establishment. The kingdom’s lèse-majesté [...]

UN human rights experts expressed grave concern Monday over Thailand’s increasingly severe use of lèse-majesté laws to curtail criticism of the monarchy, singling out a 43-year sentence for an elderly woman convicted for insulting the royal family. Anchan Preelert, a 60-year-old former civil servant, was on January 19 last year handed what is viewed as [...]

The Thai government filed a criminal complaint against political leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit Wednesday, citing crimes against the monarchy. Juangroongruangkit is the leader of Future Forward, a pro-democracy party created to contest Thai elections. He criticized the government’s administration of recently developed COVID-19 vaccines. Juangroongruankit specifically condemned the government for relying too heavily on the Crown [...]

The Bangkok Criminal Court on Tuesday sentenced a Thai woman to more than 43 years in prison for insulting the monarchy. The woman, Anchan Preelert, is a former member of the Banpodj Network, a group accused by the Thai government of being an “anti-monarchy network” due to the content of their videos uploaded to Facebook [...]