Last week, the House of Representatives passed in the second and third readings an amnesty bill for political offences. The bill prohibits amnesty for royal defamation, while the House rejected an amendment which would opened a door to amnesty for those charged as minors.

On Saturday (25 October), activists and residents in Chiang Mai ran 3.5 kilometres through Chiang Mai University to demand release of political prisoners and protest parliament’s refusal to include royal defamation defendants in the amnesty bill for political offences.

Ahead of today’s parliamentary debate on the amnesty bill for people facing political charges, the Network for People’s Amnesty, a network of civil society organizations, filed a petition to three political parties demanding that charges of royal defamation under Section 112 of the Criminal Code and harming the Queen or her liberty under Section 110 be included in the bill.

Parliament has dismissed an amnesty bill for political crimes that was proposed by the People’s Party and the Network for People’s Amnesty.

Debate began on Wednesday (9 July) in parliament on five proposed amnesty bills for prosecutions deemed political crimes. However, the House Speaker abruptly adjourned the session before parliament could finish the debate and vote on the bills.

Amid growing political turmoil, Parliament is expected on 9 July to debate five bills proposing amnesty for people facing political prosecution. The royal defamation law remains a point of contention as the Government Whip insisted that all draft legislation must not propose amnesty for those found guilty of violating it.

The Network for People’s Amnesty has called on the opposition to raise the issue of political prosecutions in the no-confidence debate scheduled for 24-25 March, urging the government to fulfil its commitments to political detainees.

As the number of political prisoners continue to increase, the civil society has been pushing for an amnesty bill. Although several amnesty bills have been proposed, the royal defamation law, or Section 112 of the Thai Criminal Code, remains the most contentious issue in the debate as several parties oppose granting amnesty to royal defamation defendants. But the report from the Special Committee studying approaches to an amnesty law present an option: conditional amnesty.

Thailand is set to introduce an amnesty bill for politically motivated cases aimed at unravelling two decades of political conflict, but this has fuelled another heated debate, particularly on royal defamation cases, which several political parties want excluded from amnesty.

The Network for People’s Amnesty filed a petition today (18 July) calling on the ad-hoc committee studying approaches to an amnesty bill to include those facing royal defamation charges in its amnesty programme.

A network of civil society organisations and activist groups has called on the government to investigate the death of detained activist Netiporn Sanesangkhom, and to release all political prisoners held in pre-trial detention.

Several volunteers collecting signatures for a campaign to introduce an amnesty bill for pro-democracy activists and protesters reported being harassed by police officers over the 14-day campaign, said Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR).