The Supreme Court on Wednesday (28 August) dismissed a royal defamation charge filed against a mentally ill woman for social media posts about members of the royal family, but found her guilty of violation of the Computer Crimes Act and gave her a suspended sentence of 2 years in prison.

Buppha (pseudonym), who has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and suffers from delusions causing her to think that she was related to the royal family, was charged with royal defamation and violation of the Computer Crimes Act for 13 Facebook posts made in 2015 and 2016 mentioning King Bhumibol, King Vajiralongkorn, and other members of the royal family.

She was initially tried in a military court, but her case was later transferred to a civilian court after the repeal of an NCPO Order for civilians to be tried in military courts in national security cases. She was also detained pending trial for two years before being granted bail.

In August 2020, the Pattaya Provincial Court found Buppha not guilty of royal defamation but sentenced her to 78 months, or around 6 years and 6 months, in prison for violation of Section 14(3) the Computer Crimes Act. Since she had never been sentenced to prison before, her sentence was suspended for 3 years.

The Appeal Court in March 2022 instead found Buppha guilty of Section 14(1) of the Computer Crimes Act, but upheld her sentence.

Section 14(3) of the Computer Crimes Act states that a person can be sentenced to up to 5 years in prison or a fine of up to 100,000 baht or both for importing into a computer system data that constitute an offence against national security. Section 14(1), on the other hand, concerns importing into a computer system false information that is likely to cause damage to a third party or the public.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) reported that, on Wednesday (28 August), the Supreme Court ruled to uphold the not guilty verdict for the royal defamation charges against Buppha. However, it found her guilty of four counts of violating Section 14(3) of the Computer Crimes Act for posts mentioning King Bhumibol and King Vajiralongkorn.

Buppha was sentenced to 24 months, or around 2 years, in prison. The prison sentence was suspended for 3 years, during which she must report to a probation officer 6 times within the first 2 years. She must also continue to receive psychiatric treatment.

Poonsuk Poonsukcharoen, a TLHR lawyer, said in a post on her Facebook page that the Supreme Court believes that Buppha did not intend to commit a crime but did so because of her mental illness. However, the Court found her guilty of violating the Computer Crimes Act because it believes that being able to post on social media shows that she has some awareness and self-control.

Poonsuk noted that while the Court found Buppha not guilty of royal defamation, it found her guilty of importing into a computer system data relating to an offence against national security even though she was not guilty of the charge relating to national security. Since the royal defamation charge was dismissed on the grounds that Buppha is mentally ill and has no intention to commit royal defamation, Poonsuk questioned whether the intention in both charges can be considered as different from each other.