The Appeal Court ruled last Thursday (23 January) to sentence dissident musician Parinya “Port” Cheewinkulpathom to 6 years in prison on royal defamation charges over three Facebook posts made in 2016.

Parinya is the last member of the protest band Faiyen remaining in Thailand, the rest of the band having fled the country to Laos before seeking asylum in France. He was charged with royal defamation and violation of the Computer Crimes Act for 3 Facebook posts, which included one post in which Parinya wrote that a monarchy that is protected by the royal defamation law which carries a severe penalty is “an object of dillusion” (สิ่งงมงาย).

In another post, Parinya shared a news report about an attempted military coup in Turkey in July 2016 and commented that it failed because the country didn’t have a king to endorse the coup. Another post, made on 30 July 2016, contains part of a song Parinya said he wrote recently about an “institution” that commits atrocities in the country.

In August 2022, the Criminal Court found Parinya guilty on all three counts and sentenced him to 9 years in prison, later reduced to 6 years because he gave useful testimony.

Last Thursday (23 January), the Appeal Court ruled to uphold the Criminal Court’s verdict, sentencing Parinya to 6 years in prison. Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) said that the Appeal Court found him guilty because the posts contain false accusations against the monarchy and because an insult against King Bhumibol is an insult against his son, King Vajiralongkorn, therefore damaging national security. TLHR noted, however, that the ruling mentioned King Vajiralongkorn although the posts were made in April and July 2016, during the reign of King Bhumibol.

The ruling also noted that interpreting the royal defamation law as only covering the current monarch would open a loophole for the monarch to be insulted because an insult against a former monarch would affect the current one.

Parinya’s lawyers filed a bail request for him pending appeal with the Supreme Court. However, while his bail request was forwarded to the Supreme Court, he was detained at the Bangkok Remand Prison before being granted bail on Sunday (26 January).