The Criminal Court yesterday (28 June) dismissed all charges against five protesters accused of trying to block a royal motorcade on Phitsanulok Road during an anti-government protest on 14 October 2020.

Queen Suthida's vehicle moving pass rows of crowd control officers and protesters on Phitsanulok Road on 14 October 2020.

Ekachai Hongkangwan, Boonkueanoon Paothong, Suranat Paenprasoet, and two other people were charged with harming the Queen or her liberty under Section 110 of the Thai Criminal Code when they were accused of blocking the royal motorcade of Queen Suthida and Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti during the 14 October 2020 protest.

They were also charged with participating in an assembly of ten or more people and using violence to cause a breach of peace under Section 215 of the Criminal Code, blocking traffic, and blocking a public road.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) said that the Court dismissed the charges because the police did not properly clear the route of the royal motorcade and did not announce that a motorcade was coming.

Meanwhile, officers were surrounding vehicles in the motorcade, causing protesters to believe that they were facing a crackdown and so protested by shouting and flashing the three-finger salute at the police. However, the protest was not directed at the motorcade, and once protesters learned that a royal motorcade was passing through the area, they moved aside to allow it to pass and did not block or throw anything at it.

The Court ruled that the incident is the result of a misunderstanding, noting that even crowd control officers at the scene were not informed ahead of time that a royal motorcade was coming and did not know which members of the royal family were in the vehicles.

The Court also ruled that police officers were already blocking the road to prevent protesters from approaching Government House, and so the defendants are not guilty of blocking traffic or blocking a public road.

What happened on 14 October 2020?

Protesters marching to Government House on 14 October 2020

In one of the largest anti-government mass demonstrations in 2020, protesters marched from the Democracy Monument to Government House. Activists and protesters criticized the government and senators over their lack of legitimacy and incompetence in governing the country. They also criticized the monarchy for the massive budget it received and for the amount of time King Vajiralongkorn allegedly spent in Germany.

While protesters gathered on Phitsanulok Road, they found themselves caught between police blockades, and as they were negotiating with the police to open the road, a royal motorcade passed by the section of the road where anti-government protesters, crowd control police, and a small group of yellow-clad pro-monarchy protesters were gathering.

Queen Suthida was on her way to Wat Arun Ratchawararam and Wat Ratcha Orasaram, where she was to represent her husband King Vajiralongkorn in kathin ceremonies (an annual Buddhist merit offering ceremony). She was accompanied by Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti, the King’s youngest child and only legitimate son born to his third wife Sirasmi Suwadee, who he divorced in December 2014 following corruption allegations against several of her relatives.

Boonkueanoon told Prachatai after the incident that the protesters rushed at the police out of concerns that they were facing a crackdown, and that he himself was part of a group of protesters standing between the crowd and the police to prevent any use of violence. He said they were not told that a royal motorcade was to pass by Phitsanulok Road, and that he had no intention of harming any member of the royal family. He also said he was using a megaphone to tell protesters to move back and let the royal motorcade pass.

Questions were raised about the route of the motorcade and why it travelled through a road occupied by protesters, since protesters had left other nearby routes like Ratchadamnoen Avenue. Several reporters at the scene, including Pravit Rojanaphruk and Teeranai Charuvastra, then working for Khaosod English, said they did not see anyone trying to block the motorcade or hitting the vehicles, and that no announcement was made that a motorcade was arriving.

Noppakow Kongsuwan, then working for Khaosod Online, was reporting on the pedestrian bridge across Phitsanulok Road and said that the police did not attempt to clear the bridge as usual when royal motorcades pass beneath.

Arrest warrants were subsequently issued for Ekkachai and Boonkueanoon, who were seen near the royal motorcade during the incident. Boonkueanoon turned himself in on 16 October, while Ekachai was arrested on the same day while on the way to Dusit Police Station to turn himself in after learning of his arrest warrant.

Suranat, a community activist and coordinator of the Active Youth network, planned to go to Dusit Police Station to hear his charges on 21 October, but was taken into police custody before he left his home to go to the police station.

All three were taken to the Border Patrol Police Region 1 Headquarters for interrogation. While Boonkueanoon, then a student at Mahidol University, was allowed bail, Ekkachai and Suranat were detained for around 20 days before they were granted bail. They insisted following their release that they did not block the motorcade.

TLHR said that some discrepancies were revealed during witness examination. They noted that there were several royal motorcades scheduled for 14 October 2020 heading to various temples around Bangkok, including those of King Vajiralongkorn and his younger sister Princess Sirindhorn, and that several police officers testified that these motorcades’ routes were changed due to the protest.

It also emerged that the Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent of Dusit Police both said on the police radio that Phitsanulok Road was not available at the time, but Queen Suthida’s motorcade route was not changed.

TLHR noted that the incident was claimed by Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha’s government as a reason it had to declare a severe state of emergency in Bangkok on the morning on 15 October 2020, and that arrest warrants were issued immediately after a complaint was filed by a former protest guard for the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) late at night on 14 October 2020.

The defendants testified that they were afraid that protesters gathering on Phitsanulok Road would face a violent dispersal, and so some protesters formed a line to block the police and allow everyone else time to get away. They also said that the police did not say there was going to be a royal motorcade, and that no announcement were made at all before crowd control police began moving towards the protesters.

Ekachai and Boonkueanoon both testified that no protester approached the motorcade or threw objects at the vehicles. They also said they believe that, if the police had allowed the entire motorcade to pass through without stopping, no one would interfere with it since the protesters know that there would be trouble if they did.

Boonkueanoon also noted that not only were they not told there would be a royal motorcade, he also did not see any officer dressed as if they were accompanying a royal motorcade, and that because he only saw crowd control officers in the area, he and other protesters believed a crackdown was imminent.

Suranat testified that he was waiting for the rest of the protesters at Government House, and because he heard people talking about a possible crackdown, he tried to resolve the situation, but did not know that a royal motorcade was to pass through the area.

He denied the accusation that he told protesters to sit down to block the motorcade, saying that he was doing so to stop a confrontation between protesters and police officers. At the time, he did not see that there was a royal motorcade behind the police line.

The incident is the only time that charges under Section 110 were used against participants in the 2020 – 2022 pro-democracy protests. It carries a penalty of 16 – 20 years to life in prison. For Suranat and Boonkueanoon, it was the first and only time they were prosecuted for joining a protest.