The list of people facing allegations of insulting Thailand’s royal family – a crime that carries up to 15 years in prison – is growing fast.
It features a popular opposition figure, who this week questioned the process by which a company owned by the King was selected to produce Covid-19 vaccines, and a 16-year-old boy who, during a fashion show that denounced the King, had a crop top with a reference to the frost scribbled across his skin. The teenage protester declined to comment.
According to the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights legal aid group, at least 54 people have faced criminal charges since November under the lese majesty law that bans any alleged insult to the Thai monarchy. A number of them have been summoned by police to initiate the investigation, the group said.
Most of them are protesters who have transformed Thailand’s political landscape in recent months, defying long-held social taboos and openly questioning the role and influence of the crown. The palace has traditionally held an almost sacred status in Thai society. But many in the new protest movement see the crown as part of the royalist military elite that they say is holding back democratic progress in their country shaken by frequent coups d’état and political unrest.