Student activist vows to fight on despite gaining reprieve over lese majeste charges
The Criminal Court on Wednesday convicted a political activist on lese majeste charges for a speech she made in a rally in 2022, but decided to suspend the two-year sentence.
Phatsawalee Thanakitwiboonphon was found guilty by the South Bangkok Criminal Court of defaming the monarchy and violating the Criminal Code’s Article 112 at a political rally on March 24, 2022. The rally was held by the United Front of Thammasat and Demonstration at Bangkok’s Ratchaprasong intersection.
Emerging from the courtroom with a smile, Phatsawalee said she was acquitted on the charge of breaching the emergency decree because the public prosecutors had failed to prove without a doubt that she was the one who had organised the rally.
As for the lese majeste charge, she said the court found her guilty of violating Article 112 and initially sentenced her to three years in jail. The court then commuted the sentence by a third to two years because her testimony was useful for the trial and that she is a student.
The court then suspended the jail term and put her on probation for three years on condition that she behaves like a good citizen, Phatsawalee said.
Despite her suspended jail term, the activist vowed to appeal against the conviction to “set a standard that ordinary people should be able to speak out against all institutions under the Constitution”.
She said the verdict had stated that in her speech she did not speak about the legal technicalities of Article 112, but that it may have made the audience misunderstand that it was about the monarchy.
“But I hereby affirm that all the facts I referred to in my speech were facts already known to the public and I confirm that I will continue fighting the case,” Phatsawalee said.
Before entering the court, she told reporters that she was facing three lawsuits for allegedly breaching Article 112 and the Wednesday ruling was only on one of them. She said her group will rally from February 1 to 14 to collect signatures to sponsor a people’s amnesty bill in a bid to end the decades-long political divide once and for all.
She said the bill would help return power to the people and show that the people “have the right to mention and criticise politicians”.
