A 27-year-old protester has been sentenced to prison without suspension for burning the King’s portrait in a 2021 protest.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) reported on Monday (8 September) that the Criminal Court sentenced Joi (Pseudonym), a 27-year-old protester, to around two years and six months in prison without suspension, for shooting a slingshot at, and later setting fire to, a royal arch during a protest at Din Daeng Tollway on 6 September 2021.

She has filed a bail request and is awaiting the decision.

Joi is facing five charges, including royal defamation, arson, illegal assembly, failing to disperse when ordered to do so by officials, and violating the Emergency Decree.

On 7 September 2021, the police went to her residence, initially identifying themselves as social security officers. They asked to check her mobile phone before admitting that they were police. Joi was then taken to the Police Station for seven hours of questioning.

On 9 September 2021, the police issued an arrest warrant for her. The following day, the court granted her bail with a 20,000 baht security on the condition that she wear an electronic monitoring bracelet.

Over the next two years, she was indicted for a number of criminal violations: causing chaos by throwing firecrackers and other objects at crowd control police; starting a bonfire on a public road; failing to disperse when ordered to do so by officials; and finally, firing a slingshot at a banner portrait of the King before tearing it down, stepping on it, and setting it on fire.

The indictment asserted that Joi’s action showed malicious intent toward the King, that burning a royal portrait was tantamount to burning the King, and that her act could be construed as an attempt to overthrow the monarchy and the democratic regime with the King as head of state.

According to the document, a royal portrait represents the King and stands for the highest institution of the country, the monarchy, with the result that respecting a picture is the same as respecting the King. She was released on bail pending trial with 200,000 baht as security.

In her interview with TLHR, Joi said that she was never part of a pro-democracy group. She graduated in 2021, when COVID-19 was spreading, and protested because she was dissatisfied with former Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha and the government's COVID-19 management.

Prior to the incident which led to the charges against her, she joined protests near her residence because she is a “young person who wants to express myself and exercise my rights like ordinary people.”