Thailand imposes the longest sentence ever for criticizing the royal family

Over two months in 2021, an online clothing retailer shared 27 posts on Facebook with clips from John Oliver's “Last Week Tonight,” a Fox animated series and a BBC documentary. The content was deemed insulting to the monarchy and this week his sentence was extended to 50 years in prison.

It is the harshest punishment yet imposed under a law that makes criticizing royalties a crime, according to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, a group of lawyers helping people jailed after the 2014 military coup .

Thailand has one of the strictest lese majeste laws in the world; it prohibits defaming, insulting or threatening the king and other members of the royal family. The charge is known as Article 112 and carries a minimum sentence of three years and a maximum sentence of 15 years. It is the only law in Thailand that imposes a minimum prison sentence.

Although a civilian government took office in September after almost a decade of military rule, the number of prosecutions against people who have criticized the monarchy has not decreased. Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has said he will not change or abolish the law, which observers say will only widen the divide in a country that remains deeply polarized.

“Thailand is clearly not an open society, regardless of what the government says,” said Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher in Thailand for Human Rights Watch.

Mongkhon Thirakhot, 30, the clothing seller who is also a political activist from the northern province of Chiang Rai, was initially sentenced to 28 years in prison in 2023 for 14 social media posts deemed to have insulted the king.

On Thursday, the Chiang Rai Court of Appeal found Mr Mongkhon guilty of another 11 charges of violating the Royal Criticism Act and added 22 years to his sentence, said Akarachai Chaimaneekarakate, head of advocacy at Thai Lawyers for Human Rights.

Mr Akarachai said the messages were shared on social media episodes eight And 12 from season 1 of John Oliver's 'Last Week Tonight', in which the host mocked the Thai king, his wife and their poodle. The other offensive message contained a clip from the Fox animated series 'American Dad' which showed that the characters were stealing “the king's diamond-encrusted inhaler.” Mr Mongkhon was also convicted for posting 'The Soul of a Nation', a BBC documentary about Thailand's royal family.

Mr Mongkhon was given such a harsh sentence because of the huge number of Facebook posts and because of a unique feature in the law that imposes a minimum sentence for each charge, Mr Akarachai said. He said Mr Mongkhon was given a shorter sentence because the judge found he cooperated during the trial.

“I think it is safe to say that it is now undeniable that Thailand's anachronistic lese majeste law is in dire need of reform,” Mr Akarachai said.

This year, courts in Thailand are expected to rule on hundreds of lese majeste cases, four years after protests in 2020 prompted thousands of young, disaffected Thais to take to the streets. They then called for checks on the king and the power of the palace, breaking the taboo never to challenge the monarchy. Then-Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the general who seized power in the 2014 coup, ordered all government officials to “use every law” to prosecute anyone who criticized the monarchy.

Because anyone can file a complaint under the Royal Criticism Act, hundreds of lese majeste cases were filed after the protests. Since then, at least 262 people have been charged with violating the law, according to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights.

Earlier this week, a court in Thailand extended the sentence of Arnon Nampa, a prominent activist and lawyer, by another four years for three Facebook posts that allegedly defamed the monarchy.

Mr Arnon, 39, is already serving a four-year prison sentence handed down in September for his speech at a 2020 pro-democracy rally that hit the monarchy. The sentences will run consecutively, meaning he will serve eight years in prison. He is still awaiting judgments against him in twelve other such cases.

This month, a court is expected to hand down a verdict against Pita Limjaroenrat, the former opposition leader who led the Move Forward Party to an election victory last year. He is accused of trying to end Thailand's constitutional democracy, with the king as head of state, through Move Forward's election campaign to change the royal defamation law.

Civil society organizations are pushing for an amnesty law for those charged for participating in political protests. Mr Akarachai said his group has more than 800 such cases on hand.

“If the government insists on pursuing every single case to the end, we will be in the same place in 2025 and 2026,” he said.

The previous conviction record for lese majeste dates back to 2021, when Anchan Preelert, a 65-year-old former civil servant, was sentenced to 43 years for sharing audio clips on YouTube and Facebook between 2014 and 2015 that were deemed critical of the Royal Family.

The court initially imposed an 87-year prison sentence on Ms Anchan, but halved it after she agreed to plead guilty.