Thai activist gets two-year suspended sentence for 2021 remarks about monarchy

‘It was necessary to talk about the monarchy and Thai politics because it had become an issue,’ says activist Patsaravalee Tanakitvibulpon

A Thai court has awarded a two-year suspended jail term to a political activist for her remarks about the monarchy under a controversial law.

Patsaravalee Tanakitvibulpon, popularly known as "Mind", was initially sentenced to three years in prison by the Bangkok South Criminal Court on Wednesday for violating Thailand's lese-majeste law. Her sentence was later reduced to a two-year suspended term due to her cooperation.

Ms Patsaravalee, 28, had pleaded not guilty to an offense under Article 112 of the criminal code about a speech she gave at a rally in March 2021.

Thailand has one of the world’s strictest lese-majeste laws, which protects the palace from criticism and carries a maximum prison sentence of up to 15 years. The law allows for cases to be filed for each perceived royal insult, a punishment widely condemned by international human rights groups as extreme.

Ms Patsaravalee was acquitted of a charge of violating an emergency decree on public gatherings because she was not an organiser of the event.

"I am confident that the content of my speech on that day was polite and humble," she told reporters.

"I spoke with good intentions, not defamation. It was necessary to talk about the monarchy and Thai politics because it had become an issue".

Patsaravalee Tanakitvibulpon receives a garland from her supporter on her arrival at Southern Criminal Court in Bangkok (AP)

She was one of the new wave of young leaders to lead a series of unprecedented protests calling for reforms in the monarchy, that shook the Southeast Asian country in 2020.

A small group of supporters handed flowers to Ms Patsaravalee before she entered the court.

Meanwhile, Thailand’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday ruled the Move Forward Party had violated the constitution in seeking to change a law against insulting the monarchy.

The party won last year’s election on a progressive platform that included a once unthinkable proposal to amend the lese majeste law.

The court asked the party to abandon the plan, which it found was tantamount to calling for the overthrow of the system of constitutional monarchy.

At least 262 people have been charged under the controversial law for allegedly insulting the monarchy since the 2020 protests, according to data tracked by Thai Lawyers for Human Rights.

Most of those cases are related to the youth-led democracy movement, which has since lost momentum after posing one of the biggest challenges to Thailand’s conservative establishment.

Earlier this month, a human rights lawyer was sentenced to four years in prison for royal insults from a 2021 social media post.

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, Reuters reported.

A 29-year-old progressive Thai MP was sentenced to six years in prison in December 2023 for insulting the monarchy on social media.

Rukchanok Srinork was found guilty of breaching the lese-majeste law in a case related to comments posted or reposted on social media.