The Criminal Court has postponed the witness examination hearings in the royal defamation trial of activist and MP designate Chonticha Jangrew, claiming that it has just discovered her lawyer’s schedule in its own case information system.

The Criminal Court has insisted on continuing witness examination in the royal defamation trial of activist Chonticha Jangrew, now MP designate for the Move Forward Party, despite her lawyer being unavailable to attend the hearing.

For the first week 15-year-old Thanalop spent in pre-trial detention at a Juvenile Centre, her lawyer said Centre officials refused to allow her visitors and did not inform the lawyer that Thanalop had contracted Covid-19 until several days after she tested positive.

The Taling Chan Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for activist Chukiat Sangwong after he missed a court hearing following an accident, claiming that it believes he is trying to delay the case by refusing to come to court.

<p>For the past 9 months, the Criminal Court has been refusing to issue summonses for documents requested by lawyers representing activists charged with royal defamation for the 19 September 2020 protest to be used as evidence, delaying the witness examination process.</p>

<p>29 people are now detained pending trial or pending appeal on charges relating to political expression, after activist Sinburi Saenkla was denied bail on Monday&nbsp;(8 August).</p>

<p>An activist was arrested on Saturday night (30 July) and temporarily detained pending investigation on a royal defamation charge for speaking at a protest on 28 July to demand the release of detained activists.</p>

<p>7 activists from the activist group Thalufah were denied bail on Tuesday (19 July), after the public prosecutor decided to indict them on charges relating to a protest at the Democrat Party headquarters on 30 July 2021.</p>

<p>Monarchy reform activists Nutthanit and Netiporn, who are being held in pre-trial detention on royal defamation charges, have once again been denied bail despite being hospitalized after collapsing during a witness examination hearing from severe pain and fatigue from their hunger strike.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.hrw.org/thailand">Thai</a>&nbsp;authorities should immediately&nbsp;drop the charges and&nbsp;release&nbsp;pro-democracy activists detained&nbsp;for&nbsp;insulting the monarchy&nbsp;(lese majeste), <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/07/19/thailand-free-detained-critics-monarchy">Human Rights Watch </a>said today&nbsp;(19 July).</p>

<p>From 9.00 &ndash; 17.00 for the past three days, activists and members of the public stood in front of the UN headquarters in Bangkok to protest against the denial of bail for detained activists and to demand that UN agencies pay attention to the Thai authorities&rsquo; violation of civil and political rights.</p>