The Appeal Court has overturned a Thanyaburi Provincial Court ruling and found a 30-year-old man guilty of royal defamation for throwing paint at a portrait of King Vajiralongkorn in front of a shopping mall in Pathum Thani’s Rangsit District.

Somphon, a former private company employee, was charged with royal defamation , destruction of public property, and violation of the Public Cleanliness Act for throwing red paint at a portrait of King Vajiralongkorn in front of the Lotus’s shopping mall in Rangsit. The Thanyaburi Provincial Court found him guilty of destruction of public property and violation of the Public Cleanliness Act but found him not guilty of royal defamation on the ground that he did not say anything or act in any way that is defamatory or a threat against the King. He was sentenced to 1 year in prison and a fine of 20,000 baht. His sentence was reduced to 6 months in prison and a fine of 10,000 baht because he confessed. The sentence was also suspended for 2 years.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) said that, on Tuesday (25 June), the Appeal Court ruled to overturn the Thanyaburi Provincial Court’s dismissal of the royal defamation case against Somphon. Instead, it found him guilty on the grounds that he threw paint at the King’s portrait at several locations on the same day, showing that he intended to damage these portraits. The Appeal Court also ruled that throwing paint at portraits devalues them, which is disrespectful and defamatory against the King.

The Appeal Court sentenced Somphon to 3 years in prison, reduced to 2 years because he gave useful testimony, to be served consecutively with his other sentences. He was later granted bail using a 150,000-baht security.

Somphon is facing charges in 5 cases in which he is accused of throwing paint at a portrait of the King and one for spray-painting. The Courts of First Instance dismissed the royal defamation charge in all cases but sentenced him to prison for destruction of public property.