The Court of Appeal for Specialized Cases on Wednesday (24 July) found Bell (pseudonym), a 20-year-old student activist, guilty of royal defamation for posts made on the Facebook group of local activist groups in November 2020 and gave him a 1 year and 6 month suspended prison sentence.

Bell was charged with royal defamation, sedition, and violation of the Computer Crimes Act along with 3 other people for allegedly posting images of King Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida around Phatthalung city along with captions on the Facebook pages of local activist groups in Phatthalung. The public prosecutor indicted them on two counts for each Facebook page on the grounds that the captions defamed the King and Queen and were damaging to the monarchy.

Since Bell was charged when he was 17, he was tried in the juvenile court. In July 2023, the Phatthalung Juvenile and Family Court found Bell guilty on both counts and sentenced him to 2 years and 12 months in prison. However, because he was a minor when he was charged, the Court instead ruled to have him detained at a juvenile training centre in Surat Thani for 2 years instead of serving a prison sentence.

Yesterday (24 July), the Court of Appeal for Specialized Cases amended the verdict of the lower court and found Bell guilty of only one of the two counts of the charges because there is only evidence linking him to one of the Facebook pages.

The Court sentenced Bell to 1 year and 6 months in prison, but suspended the sentence for 3 years, ruling that it has enough ground to give him a suspended sentence instead of sending him to a juvenile training centre.

Bell is required to report to a probation officer every 3 months and must undergo a urine drug screening every time he reports to the officer. He must perform 24 hours of community service within 2 years. The Court also required him to stay in university or take a job, and prohibited him from socializing with people with “bad behaviour” or going to nighttime places of entertainment unless given permission by his guardian.

Meanwhile, the Phatthalung Provincial Court dismissed charges against the three people charged along with Bell on the grounds that evidence presented by the prosecution was insufficient to prove that they took the photos.