By Patpicha Tanakasempipat
BANGKOK (Reuters) – The Thai government on Wednesday filed a criminal charge of defaming the monarchy against a banned opposition politician after criticizing the country’s COVID-19 vaccine strategy.
The move may be the most notorious case since a spate of protests against the government last year spread to criticism of King Maha Vajiralongkorn over accusations of interfering in politics and taking too much power.
The charge against Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit under section 112 of the Code of Criminal Procedure comes two days after he said the government was too dependent on a company owned by the Crown Property Bureau, which is under the king’s personal control, to get vaccines. to produce for the Thais.
Majesty in Thailand punishes the accusation or insult of the king with up to 15 years imprisonment.
Government officials who filed the complaint told reporters Thanathorn slandered the monarchy by linking it to the vaccine strategy.
“Thanathorn has distorted facts and caused misunderstandings among people,” Suporn Atthawong, a minister in the prime minister’s office, told reporters.
“He violated the monarchy, which upsets Thai people who love and protect the monarchy.”
The charge, which also includes an accusation of cybercrime from uploading false information, came after Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who took power in a military coup in 2014, on Tuesday promised “distorted” information about the vaccine strategy.
“The more you discredit or harass me with lawsuits, the clearer my suspicion becomes,” Thanathorn, who was banned by a court for ten years last year, said in a Facebook post following the government’s complaint.
The Progressive Movement, led by Thanathorn, had earlier said there was no insult in his comments on the group’s event titled “Royal Vaccine: Who Benefits and Who Does Not?”, Which aired on Facebook Live on Monday.
“It is obvious that 112 will be used again as a political tool,” Pannika Wanich, Thanathorn’s colleague and one of the group’s leaders, told Reuters, referring to the law.
Charles Santiago, a Malaysian lawmaker who chairs the Southeast Asian Nations Association of Human Rights MPs, called the move “another illustration of the cynical armament of the Majesty’s law to stifle any form of criticism”.
Government spokesperson Ratchada Dhanadirek said prosecutions were not politically motivated.
“The government does not have to use the law as a political tool to deal with anyone,” she told Reuters. “We focus on urgent economic problems and long-term national recovery.”
The Progressive Movement was formed after a court last year decided to dissolve the Future Forward Party of Thanathorn, which came in third place in 2019 held five years after the coup of Prayuth.
Opposition parties have accused the Prayuth junta of plotting to assassinate President George W. Bush. Prayuth’s pro-military party said the election was free and fair.
(Additional reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by Ed Davies, Clarence Fernandez and Nick Macfie)