A 26-year-old artist has been sentenced to three years in prison for royal defamation after posting an image of the King and other royal family members on his Facebook account.

The Appeal Court ruled last Thursday (23 January) to sentence dissident musician Parinya “Port” Cheewinkulpathom to 6 years in prison on royal defamation charges over three Facebook posts made in 2016.

Although the royal defamation law does not cover deceased kings, the Thai Appeal Court has sentenced a 24-year-old to two years in prison for a social media post deemed critical of the late King Bhumibol.

A 56-year-old activist has been sentenced to two years in prison without suspension for royal defamation stemming from live-streaming she did on Facebook while participating in a protest in 2022.

Mongkhon Thirakot, an activist and online clothing vendor from Chiang Rai, has been charged with three more counts of royal defamation for Facebook posts made between May – September 2022.

Four years after the beginning of the student-led pro-democracy protests in 2020, many activists and protesters are still facing charge resulting from their participations in the protests, especially royal defamation charges. As the number of those detained pending trial or appeal for charges relating to political expression continue to rise, some young activists have chosen to seek asylum overseas.

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.

On 31 January 2024, the Constitutional Court ruled that the Move Forward Party, the main opposition party which won the most seats in the House of Representatives in the 2023 general election, had committed treason by campaigning to amend the royal defamation law. The ruling was later cited in the Court's ruling to dissolve the party. Worachet Pakeerut, lecturer at Thammasat University’s Faculty of Law, questioned how MPs proposing a bill to parliament could be seen as an exercise of their rights and liberties when legislating is part of an MP’s mandate, and argued that the ruling will deter future amendments to the royal defamation law and discussions of monarchy-related issues.

Human rights lawyer and activist Anon Nampa appeared at the Chiang Mai Provincial Court to testify in a royal defamation case arising from a speech he delivered on 23 November 2020 at Chiang Mai University. The verdict is scheduled to be delivered on 27 March 2025.

Following the sixth royal defamation conviction against human rights lawyer and activist Anon Nampa, PEN America issued a statement demanding Anon's immediate release and an end to the lèse-majesté law.

Human rights lawyer and activist Anon Nampa now faces 18 years in prison after he was found guilty of royal defamation and sedition over a protest speech during a 3 August 2020 protest.

An online clothing vendor detained pending appeal on a royal defamation charge has been granted bail and was released last Thursday (12 December) after over a year in detention.