Lèse-majesté law

Paul Chambers of Naresuan University, a leading academic authority on the Thai military, has been deemed a flight risk and imprisoned pending trial.

The Royal Thai Army has accused Paul Chambers, a lecturer at Naresuan University in Phitsanulok, of violating the lese-majeste law and Computer Crime Act.

The popular opposition party faces dissolution over its pledge to amend the country's severe lese-majeste law.

The pact between Thaksin's camp and the royalist establishment, which allowed the former leader to return from self-exile last year, may be starting to fray.

Both were granted bail pending an appeal, following the recent death of a monarchy-reform activist in custody.

The death of Netiporn “Bung” Sanesangkhom has drawn attention to the Thai government's cruel use of pretrial detention to silence peaceful critics of the monarchy.

The 25-year jail term came just days after the Election Commission ordered the disbanding of a major opposition party for advocating the reform of the lese-majeste law.

The charges follow an incident over the weekend in which monarchy reform activists and ultra-royalists engaged in a public brawl in Bangkok.

Thaksin Shinawatra's name is on a list of 930 elderly inmates, who have been approved for parole due to ill health.

The pair were charged as "accomplices" to an incident last March in which an activist spray-painted an anti-royalist message inside Bangkok's Grand Palace.

Thaksin Shinawatra has been informed about a lese-majeste complaint claiming that he insulted the monarchy in a 2015 interview in South Korea.

Arnon Nampa, a prominent leader of the mass protests of late 2020, faces 14 charges under the country's draconian lese-majeste law.

Rukchanok Srinork's Move Forward Party has campaigned hard for the repeal of Article 112 of the Thai penal code, which criminalizes criticism of the monarchy.

The case was a rare example of moderation in a case involving the sensitive subject of the Thai monarchy.

Even if it puts off amending the royal defamation law for now, change is probably inevitable given shifts in public attitudes toward the monarchy.

The pact enshrines many of the Move Forward Party's most ambitious reforms, but does not include its plans to amend the lese-majeste law.

A 15-year-old sits in detention for insulting the monarchy. With such cases in progress, the election this Sunday alone can’t be expected to put Thailand back on track.

In the May election, a significant number of Thais are expected to vote for a party that has spoken about the need to reform – or even abolish – the lèse-majesté law.

Courts are trying political activists for insulting the country's king, while sidestepping any discussion about what they actually said and whether it was true.

The cartoon images of the duck, a symbol of the country's pro-democracy movement, were said to mock the Thai king.

Activists from the monarchy reform group Thalu Wang have asked the Pheu Thai Party to abolish Section 112 if it wins this year's election.

Tantawan Tuatulanon and Orawan Phuphong demanded that a judge revoke their bail in solidarity with other activists facing lese-majeste charges.

Lese majeste laws are irreconcilable with freedom of expression.

Piyabutr Saengkanokkul is the second former leader of the banned Future Forward Party to be charged under Section 112 of the Criminal Code.