A 30-year-old Thai man is now facing a record-breaking 50-year prison sentence for allegedly making slanderous remarks about the monarchy in numerous social media posts. The appeals court recently extended his original conviction, resulting in additional jail time.
The record-breaking sentence comes after several years in which Thailand has ramped up the use of the legislation against pro-democracy protesters in what critics claim is a move to silence dissent.
An online clothing vendor named Mongkol "Busbas" Thirakot, from the northern province of Chiang Rai, has been handed a 50-year prison sentence by an appeal court in the same region. This verdict comes as a result of certain posts made by Thirakot on his personal Facebook account.
A lower criminal court had initially sentenced him to 28 years, but he was found guilty on 11 additional counts during his appeal, leading to a longer sentence.
Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) said, "The appeal court sentenced Mongkol Thirakot to 22 years for 112 over his 27 Facebook posts, in addition to the 28-year sentence already passed by the preliminary court. His total jail sentence is 50 years."
In Thailand, the lese-majesty law protects King Vajiralongkorn and his immediate family from criticism. The law is often called 112 under the relevant section of the criminal code. According to TLHR, Thirakot's sentence was the longest for royal defamation. The previous record of 43 years was imposed on a woman in 2021.
Thirakot was first arrested during a demonstration calling for the release of political prisoners in 2021. Tens of thousands participated in youth-led protests in 2020 and 2021, calling for revisions to the strict lese-majesty laws.
TLHR said Mongkol would file for an appeal against the sentence at the Supreme Court. Furthermore, TLHR claimed that more than 250 activists have been charged under lese-majesty laws since the 2020 protest movement. Arnon Nampa, a lawyer and one of the primary protest leaders, had his four-year lese-majesty sentence extended by another four years on Wednesday.
Human Rights Watch Speak Out Against Lese-Majesty Law
The Human Rights Watch has opposed Thailand's use of the lese-majesty law. They spoke out against the law after four well-known pro-democracy activists were placed in pretrial imprisonment and denied bail by the Bangkok Criminal Court for allegedly insulting the Thai Monarchy.
HRW's Asia director Brad Adams said that Thai authorities have been abusing the strict lese-majesty law by using it to "aggressively clamp down on speech they don't like" during ongoing political protests calling for monarchy reform.
Adams added putting people in pretrial imprisonment for peaceful expression portends a return to the dark days when those accused of this offense would often spend years behind bars while their cases dragged on forever.
Thailand went around three years without a lese-majesty charge in court. After the student-led pro-democracy movement gained traction in 2020, PM Prayut Chan-o-cha called for Thai authorities to bring back the lese-majesty charge.
