Activist Nawat Liangwattana was denied bail on Tuesday (2 July) after the Criminal Court had an arrest warrant issued for him for missing an evidence examination hearing on Monday (1 July).

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) said that the Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Nawat after he was late to court and missed an evidence examination hearing in a royal defamation trial relating to a protest on 25 November 2020 in front of the Siam Commercial Bank.

Nawat turned himself into the police on Tuesday (2 July). However, he was later denied bail because the Court believed that he intentionally missed the hearing without providing a reason, disrupting the trial, and therefore it deemed him a flight risk.

Nawat and 6 other activists were charged with royal defamation, sedition, joining a gathering of more than 10 persons and causing a breach of peace, not ending the gathering when ordered to do so by an official, holding a public assembly without notifying the authorities, blocking a public road, using a sound amplifier without permission, and violation of the Emergency Decree. The public prosecutor indicted them on the grounds that their speeches could allegedly cause a misunderstanding that the King tried to take public property for himself and that he used his power to interfere with politics.

Nawat’s detention brought the number of political prisoners held in detention pending trial or appeal to 24. Of this number, 17 are detained on a royal defamation charge.