Thailand lese majeste

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.

The petition was filed a day after the Constitutional Court ordered the Move Forward Party to stop advocating the reform of Thailand's harsh lese-majeste law.

The Constitutional Court deemed it unconstitutional to advocate a change in the country’s lese majeste law. That is a central plank of Move Forward’s platform.

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

The case against Arnon Nampa is one of at least 257 lese-majeste cases that are currently working their way through the Thai judicial system.

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.

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.