The list of people facing charges of insulting Thailand’s royal family – a crime that could carry up to 15 years in prison – is growing rapidly.
It includes a popular opposition figure, who this week questioned the process by which a company owned by the king was selected to produce Covid-19 vaccines, and a 16-year-old boy who, in a fashion show satirizing the king, used a cut revealing a reference to the monarch scrawled on his skin. The protesting teenager declined to comment.
Since November, at least 54 people have faced criminal complaints under the lèse-majesté law, which prohibits any insult to the Thai monarchy, according to the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights legal aid group. Several of them were summoned by the police, which initiated investigations, the group said.
Most of them are protesters who have changed Thailand’s political landscape in recent months, challenging long-standing social taboos and openly questioning the role and influence of the crown. The palace has traditionally had an almost sacred status in Thai society. But many in the new protest movement see the crown as part of the monarchist military elite that, they say, is impeding democratic progress in their country, shaken by frequent coups and political turmoil.