The Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling sentencing a man to three years and four months in prison for violating the lese majeste law over a social media post about the death of King Rama VIII.
Thai Lawyers for Human Rights said on Wednesday that the Supreme Court affirmed the ruling of the Region 1 Court of Appeal in the case of a defendant identified only as Wuttipat. The case stems from a Facebook post made in 2020 expressing opinions about the 1946 death of King Rama VIII, which negatively referred to King Rama IX.
The court ruled that defaming a former monarch, even after his death, can affect national security. It said such an interpretation is consistent with the intent of Section 112 of the Criminal Code, known as the lese majeste law, and does not constitute an overly broad reading of the law.
On March 25, 2022, the Samut Prakan Provincial Court acquitted Wuttipat, a 29-year-old company employee from Ayutthaya, of the Section 112 charge.
The court found Section 112 protects only four positions — the King, Queen, heir-apparent and Regent — who are currently in office. As King Rama IX had died in 2016, the court ruled the offence did not meet the required elements under Section 112 at the time of the post.
However, the court convicted him under Section 14(1) of the Computer Crime Act for importing false information into a computer system in a manner likely to cause public harm, sentencing him to one year in prison. The term was reduced to eight months due to his cooperation.
Prosecutors appealed, arguing that defamation of a former monarch also affects the current king, King Rama X, and national security, particularly given Thailand’s constitutional monarchy and the hereditary succession of the Chakri dynasty.
