By Patpicha Tanakasempipat
BANGKOK (Reuters) – The Thai government filed a criminal complaint on Wednesday for defaming the monarchy against a banned opposition politician after he criticized the country’s COVID-19 vaccine strategy.
The move could mark the case for a higher profile lese majeste since a wave of anti-government protests emerged last year and extended to criticism of King Maha Vajiralongkorn over accusations of meddling in politics and overpowering.
The complaint against Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit under Article 112 of the penal code came two days after he said the government was too dependent on a company belonging to the Crown Property Bureau, which is under the king’s personal control, to produce vaccines for Thais.
Lese majeste in Thailand punishes to defame or insult the king with up to 15 years in prison.
Government officials who filed the complaint told reporters that Thanathorn defamed the monarchy by linking it to the vaccine strategy.
“Thanathorn distorted the facts and caused misunderstandings among people,” Suporn Atthawong, minister in the prime minister’s office, told reporters.
“He violated the monarchy, which angered the Thai people who love and protect the monarchy.”
The complaint, which also included a cyber crime charge of sending false information, came after Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who came to power in a 2014 military coup, promised on Tuesday to process “distorted” information about the vaccine strategy.
“The more you discredit or harass me with legal cases, the clearer my suspicions become,” said Thanathorn, who was banned from politics for 10 years by a court last year, in a Facebook post after the government’s complaint.
The Progressive Movement, led by Thanathorn, said earlier that there was no insult in its comments at the group’s event entitled “Royal Vaccine: Who Benefits and Who Doesn’t?”, Broadcast on Facebook Live on Monday.
“It is obvious that 112 is being used again as a political tool,” Thanathorn’s colleague Pannika Wanich and one of the group’s leaders told Reuters, referring to the law.
Charles Santiago, a Malaysian lawmaker who chairs the Association of Parliamentarians of the Southeast Asian Nations for Human Rights, called the measure “one more illustration of the cynical arming of the Lese Majeste law to stifle any form of criticism”.
Government spokeswoman Ratchada Dhanadirek said the lawsuits were not politically motivated.
“The government does not need to use the law as a political tool to deal with anyone,” she told Reuters. “We are focused on urgent economic problems and the long-term national recovery.”
The Progressive Movement was formed after a court last year decided to dissolve the Future Party for the Front of Thanathorn, which came in third place in the 2019 elections held five years after the Prayuth coup.
Opposition parties accused the Prayuth junta of planning the elections to ensure that he remained in power. Prayuth’s pro-military party said the elections were free and fair.
(Additional reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by Ed Davies, Clarence Fernandez and Nick Macfie)