BANGKOK: An activist and lawyer made famous for his open calls for reform of Thailand’s powerful monarchy was on Tuesday sentenced to four years in prison for royal insults, a judge said, in one of the country’s highest profile lese-majeste cases.

Human rights lawyer Arnon Nampa, 39, is widely known for his taboo-breaking speech during pro-democracy protests in 2020 during which he called for public debate on the role of Thailand’s king. Arnon denies wrongdoing.

Thailand’s lese-majeste law shields the palace from criticism and carries a maximum jail sentence of 15 years for each perceived insult of the monarchy, a punishment widely condemned by international human rights groups as extreme.

Arnon was a leader of a youth-led democracy movement that held protests in Bangkok in 2020 that drew hundreds of thousands of people demanding the removal of royalist former prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who seized power in a coup.

Arnon was found guilty over remarks about the monarchy at a speech during a 2020 rally, in the first of 14 cases against him for violating article 112 of the criminal code, as the royal insults law is known.

“Arnon will be sent to prison while he waits for a bail decision, which could take two to three days,” lawyer Krisadang Nutcharus said, adding his team would lodge an appeal and if necessary, take the case to the Supreme Court. Arnon has been on bail since early last year after several periods of detention.

Hundreds of people have been charged under article 112, which is among the world’s strictest royal insults laws, with some violators given sentences of decades, including a 64-year-old woman jailed for 43 years.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2023