A pro-democracy activist has been sentenced to prison for royal defamation after posting on Facebook a message questioning King Vajiralongkorn.

Panupong “Mike” Jadnok, a prominent pro-democracy activist, was given a 4-year sentence, reduced to 3 years, after being found guilty under the royal defamation law and the Computer Crime Act. The case stemmed from his 2020 Facebook post that questioned the King during the “People’s Letter” activity (ราษฎรสาส์น), according to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights.

The message stated, “Do you think that when you stand on the ruins of democracy or the corpses of the people, you will be majestic?” Panupong also explicitly named the King in his post.

The charges were filed by Nangnoi Assawakittikorn, a member of the royalist group Thailand Help Center for Cyberbullying Victims, which has initiated over 1,000 royal defamation cases.

While he admitted to being the owner of the account, Panupong denied all charges, stating that he wanted to raise a question about the role of the King to help find a way out of a situation where the people were in conflict with the state, and his message did not contain any offensive words.

The court stated that Panupong’s message was to affirm that the King did so, saying the readers might think that the King was involved in the decay of democracy and the death of people during the COVID-19 pandemic. The message was deemed defamatory towards the dignity of the monarchy. The court also argued that it was not merely raising a question, as Panupong claimed.

The court ruled that the activist was guilty as charged. His sentence was based on the law with the heavier penalty, in this case the royal defamation law. He was initially sentenced to 4 years in prison, but the sentence was later reduced to 3 years as the defendant gave useful information.

Panupong failed to appear in court for sentencing, which had been postponed from March 28 after he first failed to appear in court. A warrant was issued for his arrest.