A 26-year-old artist has been sentenced to three years in prison for royal defamation after posting an image of the King and other royal family members on his Facebook account.

Bang-oen, a 26-year-old artist and activist, was charged under the royal defamation law and Computer Crimes Act for posting the image on 15 March 2022. The complaint against him was filed by royalist Anon Klinkaew, leader of the ultra-royalist group People’s Centre to Protect the Monarchy, who has filed several royal defamation complaints against activists and netizens and has been involved in attacks on pro-democracy activists and citizen journalists.

Bang-oen was arrested on 6 April 2023 by a dozen police officers and was taken to the Technology Crime Suppression Division. He was released after being detained for a day with 90,000 baht as security.

The indictment, on 28 June 2023, stated that Bang-oen posted the image of the King and other royal family members with the caption ‘Lunatic, Power, Black Magic’ as his Facebook cover photo. The image was altered by masks covering the faces.

The prosecutor said the image and the caption led the public to misunderstand that royal family members were lunatics and used black magic to govern the country, resulting in damage to their reputation.

Bang-oen was granted bail once again, with the bail amount increased to 180,000 baht.

During witness examination, he admitted that he posted the image himself but denied having the intention as alleged. He argued that the interpretation of an artwork depended on the individual’s personal experience and that the message, as a part of the image, should not be analysed separately.

The complainant viewed the messages the defendant posted as hostile towards the monarchy, including messages such as ‘Down with dictatorship, long live democracy’, ‘Arts serves no one’, and ‘Free Arts’. ศิลปะปลดแอก ‘FreeArt’ is also the name of a movement regarded by conservatives as being anti-monarchy.

The Court on Wednesday (29 January) ruled that Bang-oen was guilty as charged. He was sentenced to four years in prison. Due to his useful testimony, the sentence was reduced to three years. He is currently requesting bail.

Bang-oen was also charged with royal defamation for posting a picture of himself standing in front of a portrait of the King and Queen while holding a shoe toward the portrait.

He was the artist who spray-painted an anarchist symbol and the number 112 with a strike through it, signifying a protest against the royal defamation law, onto the wall of the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, located within the Grand Palace. In this case, he was charged under the Act on Ancient Monuments, Antiques, Objects of Art, and National Museum, and the Public Cleanliness Act. He was sentenced to eight months.