OMM Newsroom
Thai human rights lawyer Arnon Nampa has been sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for violating the country’s lèse-majesté law, which criminalises defaming, insulting or threatening the king, queen, heir-apparent or regent. The latest sentence brings the total prison term imposed on him so far to more than 34 years, according to BBC World.
The Bangkok court issued its ruling on Friday. Arnon, 42, has faced 14 cases under the same law, and verdicts in two of them are still pending. He told reporters the outcome was not a surprise, adding that people would be able to discuss such issues freely if the country were more open.
Arnon was charged after speaking at a rally in central Bangkok on 3 August 2020, dressed as the young wizard from “Harry Potter”. He called for the monarchy’s power and wealth to be discussed publicly and criticised King Vajiralongkorn’s decision to take personal control of assets held by the Crown Property Bureau and important army units.
His speech came during student-led protests that began amid frustration with the conservative government led by coup leader Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha. Millions had voted for the reformist Future Forward party the previous year, but the Constitutional Court dissolved it in February 2020 on a technicality. After the Covid pandemic halted protests for three months, students rallied against the military’s role in politics. Arnon argued that those demands did not go far enough.
For three years before the protests, use of the lèse-majesté law had been suspended. Prosecutions resumed from the end of 2020 and accelerated. Sources close to the palace had previously acknowledged that negative publicity from convictions under the law could do more harm than good.
Over the past six years, the law has been used more extensively than at any other time in Thai history. A total of 294 people, including 20 under the age of 18, have been prosecuted, with prison sentences of up to 50 years. Dozens remain on trial. Most people charged are denied bail and held in prison, even when proceedings last several years.
Thai officials defend the law by saying it reflects the country’s culture and history, where the monarchy is a highly revered pillar of the nation. Article 112 of the criminal code prescribes prison terms of three to 15 years for anyone who defames, insults or threatens the king, queen, heir-apparent or regent.
In practice, the law has been applied to a wider range of comments and people, including criticism of any royal family member, the monarchy as an institution and deceased kings. In one case, a person was prosecuted over a remark about the king’s dog.
Akarachai Chaimaneekarakate, assistant director of Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, which helps defend people accused under the law, said its terms were ambiguous. He said even questioning the law itself could be treated as lèse-majesté.
Arnon has been held at Bangkok Remand Prison for the past three years. He writes letters to his children, 10-year-old Pran and three-year-old Karl. His partner, Lookwa, brought Karl to court, where the boy saw his father. Arnon’s court hearings are among the few occasions he has seen Karl since he was a baby. Pran sometimes visits him and often draws and paints for him.
Arnon and Lookwa consider Karl too young to visit the prison. For now, he thinks the court is where his father works. Supporters attended the hearing, filling the small courtroom and speaking with prisoners before the judges arrived.
The law’s effects have included limiting public discussion of the monarchy, which, before the 2020 protests, people generally discussed only in private. In one case, a taxi driver was jailed after a passenger reported what he had said during a ride.
Among those who left Thailand to avoid prosecution is Supitcha “Melinn” Chailom, now 24 and living in Montreal. She faces four charges under Article 112. At 18, she spoke at a protest at Chiang Mai University, three weeks after Arnon called for reform. A photograph of her raising a three-finger “Hunger Games” salute became one of the defining images of the protests and helped make her known nationwide.
Melinn travelled around Thailand as a prominent voice in the movement, calling for changes to the education system and conducting polls on public views of the monarchy. She said she had dreamed of becoming a game designer, but felt young people could not question or debate with older people, and that the monarchy gave her the same impression.
In November 2020, she spoke at a protest in Hat Yai, comparing the royal treatment of the king’s dog with that of ordinary people. Nine months later, police delivered a summons to her home. She said she had not expected to be charged because she had only talked about the dog, and recalled that police came during the Covid pandemic while her parents were at home.
Her family urged her to cooperate with authorities and admit wrongdoing, but she refused. She joined Thalu Wang, a movement whose name translates as “breaking through the palace”. Its members conducted street polls about royal motorcades causing traffic delays and whether the monarchy had too much power.
Melinn received two further lèse-majesté charges in 2022 and was detained before being released on bail. She had to wear an electronic ankle monitor and was barred from leaving home between 4pm and 6am. Her parents were required to sign a document promising to inform on her. Facing the prospect of decades in prison, she fled Thailand with a friend and eventually obtained asylum in Canada.
Article 112 can theoretically be amended by elected MPs, and it has been changed before. In 1976, the punishment was increased to between three and 15 years in prison. The Constitutional Court has since ruled that the law is untouchable, according to the report. In 2024, it dissolved the reformist Move Forward party, Future Forward’s successor, and banned its leader from politics after the party proposed reducing the penalties.
Chaimaneekarakate said courts make it difficult for people charged under the law to defend themselves. In cases such as Arnon’s, he said, prosecutors accuse defendants of lying about the monarchy, while judges have refused defence requests to subpoena documents or witnesses that could support their claims. He also said a lawyer was warned to be quiet or face a contempt-of-court charge after protesting a decision to hold a trial in secret. Judges, he added, sometimes criticise young activists over alleged actions before their trials begin.
Despite the challenges, Arnon prepares for each court appearance, takes part in his own defence and helps other prisoners with theirs. He is not allowed to bring written notes into court and must memorise his arguments. The judges object to him acting as a lawyer while wearing prison shorts and shackles, but hearings give him a chance to see his family.
In a letter to his family last year, Arnon recalled feeling relieved after his 3 August 2020 speech, saying that speaking the truth was not difficult, but speaking a forbidden truth was. Earlier this year, he wrote that life in prison was a struggle, but only a small part of the movement’s wider struggle, and urged his children to play a role in writing their own history.
