Court dismisses criminal case against Move Forward supporter Pannika

The court found that the defendant did not violate the law by posting an old poem believed to be written during the final years of the Ayutthaya Kingdom predicting its collapse, said Pannika’s legal representative, Kritsadang Nutcharat.

Kritsadang is a lawyer from the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights Centre.

In 2021, officials from the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society filed a case against Pannika, accusing her of violating the Computer Crime Act for posting the poem on social media that they alleged targeted the monarchy.

The lawsuit against Pannika cited Article 14 of the Computer Crime Act.

It prohibits “entering false computer data into a computer system in a manner that is likely to cause damage to the protection of national security, public safety, economic safety of the Kingdom of Thailand, infrastructure which is for public benefit, or to cause panic to the general public.”

Pannika did not enter false data into the computer system and the poem was unlikely to cause public panic, Kritsadang said.

The court concluded that the poem mentions situations during the Ayutthaya Period and has been widely available for a long time, she said.

Pannika acted as a “campaign assistant” for the Move Forward Party in the run-up to last Sunday's general election.

She has been banned from holding political positions or contesting an election along with other executives of the now-defunct Future Forward Party, including its leader and founder Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit and secretary-general Piyabutr Saengkanokkul.

Future Forward, the precursor of Move Forward, was disbanded by the Constitutional Court in February 2020 for violating the Political Parties Act regarding political donations.

Future Forward MPs elected in the 2019 general election shifted to Move Forward after its dissolution.