Thailand: prominent HRD sentenced to three years in yet another royal defamation case
Event- Country
- Thailand
- Initial Date
- May 8, 2024
- Event Description
Political activist Panupong Jadnok has been sentenced to three years in prison on charges of violating the lese majeste law and Computer Crimes Act, and a warrant issued for his arrest after he failed to appear in court for sentencing.
The Criminal Court on Wednesday sentenced the 28-year-old to four years behind bars and reduced it to three years due to his cooperation during witness examination.
The defendant was found guilty for a message posted on Facebook on Nov 8, 2023, according to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights.
The court said the message was viewed as offensive to the monarchy and His Majesty the King and in breach of the computer law.
The joint leader of the Ratsadon group had denied the charges.
He was not present in court for the judgement and a bench warrant was then issued for his arrest.
The ruling was postponed from March 28 after the defendant first failed to appear in court for judgement.
Panupong is known online as Mike Rayong.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Enactment of repressive legislation and policies
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression
- Offline
- Freedom of expression
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Youth
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: 13.718989183491578
Longitude: 100.39872456348331
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 8 May 2024, prominent pro-democracy HRD Panupong Jadnok, was handed a 3-year sentence for royal defamation over an online post by a criminal court in Bangkok, Thailand.