Siwanchali Withayaseriwat, a Chiang Mai-based poet, performance artist, and artist, has been found guilty of contempt of court for reading a poem at a protest against the Constitutional Court’s September 2022 ruling that Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha was allowed to stay as Prime Minister despite the 8-year term limit imposed by the 2017 Constitution.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) said today (25 June) that the Chiang Mai Provincial Court found Siwanchali guilty, ruling that the poem defamed and damaged the people’s trust in the Constitutional Court. He was sentenced to 1 year in prison. His sentence was then reduced to 8 months because he gave useful testimony.

He has been granted bail pending appeal on a cash security of 70,000 baht.

Kunapat Kachana and Peungboon Jaiyen, two other activists charged for participation in the same protest, were found not guilty. The Chiang Mai Provincial Court ruled that there is no evidence that they were involved in giving speeches or scattering pictures of Constitutional Court judges around the protest. Although they were help arranging protest banners, there is also no evidence they brought the banners or if they ordered other people to bring the banners in.

The three activists were charged with contempt of court in December 2024. TLHR said that their summonses came more than 2 years after the protest, and that the complaint was filed by the Constitutional Court office at around the same time as the complaints against 6 other activists participating in the same protest.