Student activist Parit Chiwarak has been sentenced to 2 years in prison on a royal defamation charge for a Facebook post made on 28 July 2021.

Parit was charged with royal defamation and violation of the Computer Crime Act for posting a picture of himself holding an upside-down portrait of King Vajiralongkorn with his middle finger in front of the portrait, along with a caption and a hashtag inviting people to wear black on the King’s birthday.

The complaint against him was filed by Nopadol Prompasit, a member of the Thailand Help Centre for Cyberbullying Victims, an online royalist group whose members have filed numerous lèse majesté charges against many netizens. Nopadol himself has filed complaints against netizens and several pro-democracy activists, including Anon Nampa, Piyarat Chongthep, and Chonthicha Jangrew.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) said today (31 July) that the Criminal Court found Parit guilty on the grounds that the post insults and devalues the King and sentenced him to 3 years in prison. The sentence was reduced to 2 years because he gave useful testimony.

The verdict was previously scheduled to be delivered on 25 June, but Parit did not come to court. The Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him and rescheduled the verdict delivery to today (31 July), when the verdict was delivered in absentia.

During the trial, Parit testified that the picture does not constitute an offence under the royal defamation law but is a symbolic act to demand that three problems be solved. He said he wanted to prevent the monarchy from being involved with military coups or used for profit, and that he wanted to call for the repeal of the royal defamation law. He said that a symbolic act of protest of this kind is legal and protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, noting that, under the Thai Constitution, the people hold sovereign power and so have the right to freedom of expression.

Parit is facing a total of 25 counts of royal defamation, the highest ever filed against an individual, for speeches given during the pro-democracy protests of 2020 and for social media posts. This is the first verdict delivered against him.