The Supreme Court today (18 September) sentenced a 31-year-old security guard to 2 years in prison on a royal defamation charge for a Facebook comment from May 2021.

Chatmongkhon Wanlee was charged with royal defamation after a complaint was filed against him over a comment he made on the Facebook page “Suriyothai” on 17 May 2021.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) reported that the complaint was filed by Nattawat Chonpakdee, who ran the Facebook page. The content on the page consisted mainly of posts about the royal family. On 17 May 2021, a comment was made on a post saying that “The King is just a [redacted] addict.” Finding the comment unacceptable, Nattawat subsequently filed the complaint.

The Chiang Rai Provincial Court found him not guilty on the grounds that there is no evidence he posted the comment since a Facebook profile page can be easily edited while it is difficult to identify the user behind a profile. However, the Appeal Court overturned the verdict, instead finding him guilty.

Chatmongkhon filed for appeal with the Supreme Court. TLHR said today (18 September) that the Supreme Court found him guilty on the grounds that the presented evidence is enough to believe that he owns the Facebook profile that made the comment.

He was sentenced to 3 years in prison. His sentence was later reduced to 2 years because he gave useful testimony.

Chatmongkhon’s sentence brought the number of people detained for royal defamation to 30.