Thai lawyer Arnon Nampa's total jail term passes 34 years for questioning the monarchy

A court in Bangkok on Friday sentenced human rights lawyer Arnon Nampa to two years and eight months for violating Thailand's lèse majesté law, or article 112, under which more people have been jailed for perceived insults against the royal family than in all the other countries that have such laws combined.

This is just one of 14 cases brought against Arnon under the same charge, bringing the cumulative sentence he has received so far to more than 34 years. The verdict in two cases is still pending.

Arnon Nampa, 42, is a human rights lawyer. At a Harry Potter-themed demonstration in central Bangkok in 2020, dressed as the young wizard, he called for Thailand's powerful monarchy to be scrutinised and held accountable.

After the verdict Arnon told reporters: ‘To me, this isn't a surprise. If the country was more open, we would be able to talk about these issues freely.’

The past six years have seen the most extensive use of lèse majesté in Thai history, in response to unprecedented student protests in 2020 which for the first time called for a public discussion of the role of the monarchy. Two hundred and ninety-four people, including 20 under the age of 18, have been prosecuted, receiving prison sentences of up to 50 years. Dozens of them are still on trial.

Most of those charged under this law are denied bail and kept in jail, even though their court cases can last several years. The standard defence of the law given by Thai officials is that it ‘reflects the culture and history of Thailand, where the monarchy is one of the main pillars of the nation, highly revered by the majority of Thai people’.

Article 112 of the Thai criminal code reads: ‘Whoever defames, insults or threatens the King, the Queen, the Heir-apparent or the Regent, shall be punished with imprisonment of three to 15 years.’

In practice, the law has been interpreted to cover a much wider range of comment. Saying anything negative about any member of the royal family, about the institution of the monarchy, even about long-deceased kings, or in one case the king's dog, has resulted in prosecutions.

Akarachai Chaimaneekarakate, assistant director of Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, which helps defend those accused, says he can state what the text of the law says, but he cannot give a definition of how the courts interpret the words ‘defame’ or ‘insult’, because it is so ambiguous and vague. Even questioning the law itself, he says, can constitute lèse majesté under Section 112.

In the background of 2020, the Constitutional Court had dissolved the reformist Future Forward party in February on a technicality, a year after millions voted for it. As Covid infections fell, students began rallies calling for an end to the military's role in politics. Arnon then argued it was time to talk about the opaque power and wealth of the monarchy, criticising King Vajiralongkorn's decision to take personal control of the vast assets held by the Crown Property Bureau and over important units of the army.

At the time, the use of the lèse majesté law had been suspended for three years. But the protests forced a reassessment, and from the end of 2020 prosecutions under the law restarted and accelerated. Dozens of young activists have fled into exile to avoid being jailed.

Arnon has been in Bangkok Remand Prison for the last three years, writing from his cell to his young daughter and son. Hearings are the only times he has seen his three-year-old son Karl since he was a baby; his 10-year-old daughter Pran sometimes visits him in prison and often draws and paints him.