15-year-old activist Thanalop Phalanchai will ask the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) to investigate officers from the Royal Palace Police Station for wrongful arrest, as no progress has been made on the complaint she filed against them.

Thanalop and her legal representatives met with police officers on 3 October. (Photo by Ginger Cat)

Thanalop was arrested on 28 March 2023 when she went to Royal Palace Police Station after an activist was arrested for spray-painting graffiti calling for the repeal of the royal defamation law on the wall of the Temple of the Emerald Buddha in the Grand Palace. The 15-year-old said she was dragged into a room, threatened by officers, and held on the ground while officers reached into her shirt to confiscate her iPad. She was arrested without a lawyer or social worker present as legally required in cases involving the detention of a minor.

While Thanalop was detained, her lawyer Kunthika Nutcharus filed a complaint against the arresting officers for theft, using violence to force her to do something against her will, and assault.

Thanalop and Kunthika went to Royal Palace Police Station on Tuesday (3 October) to follow up on the complaint. They met with an inquiry officer, a public prosecutor, and a social worker. However, Thanalop decided that she did not want to give her testimony to the inquiry officer out of the concern that her case would not be handled fairly.  The officers she filed a complaint against work at the same station.

Kunthika said that Thanalop’s complaint was sent to the NACC, which tasked the investigation to the inquiry officer at Royal Palace Police Station. This caused Thanalop to be concerned that she would notl receive justice.  As a result, the activist and her lawyers plan to ask the NACC to take over the investigation to ensure that the case is processed fairly .

“This is a good opportunity for the Thai judicial system to prove that it can really protect children  … and it might lead this child to trust Thailand and the Thai judicial process a bit more,” Kunthika said."

Thanalop (right) and her lawyer Kunthika Nutcharus (right) at Royal Palace Police Station on 3 October. (Photo by Ginger Cat)

Thanalop was previously charged with royal defamation after a complaint was filed against her by Anon Klinkaew, a member of the ultra-royalist group People’s Centre to Protect the Monarchy.  The complaint stemmed from a message she wrote on the ground next to the Giant Swing at a protest on 13 October 2022 which allegedly criticised royal involvement in the 6 October 1976 Thammasat University Massacre.

When she was charged, she was a little over 14 years old and now is one of the youngest people to have ever been accused of royal defamation in Thailand. After her arrest, she refused to file for bail in protest against the judicial system and spent 51 days in detention at the Ban Pranee Juvenile Vocational Training Centre for Girls in Nakhon Pathom before being released.