Nutchanon acquitted

Student activist Nutchanon Pairoj has been acquitted of an Article 112 case by the Thanyaburi Provincial Court.

On 8 November 2023, the court dismissed a charge filed against Nutchanon for a book that collected the speeches given by protest leaders in 2020. Among other things, these speeches called for royal reform.

Prachatai reports that the book was published by United Front of Thammasat and Demonstration and “contained the scripts for speeches on monarchy reform given by activists Anon Nampa, Panupong Jadnok, Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul, and Parit Chiwarak at protests in August 2020.”

On 19 September 2020, police reportedly “intercepted a truck carrying over 45,000 copies of the book,” on its way to another protest at Thammasat University. Without a search warrant they confiscated the books, claiming they “needed to check the texts for ‘treasonous’ content.”

Nutchanon, who was in the truck, was later charged with lese majeste as it was claimed that “several passages in the book and the 10-point demands for monarchy reform were insulting towards the King.”

Nutchanon’s denied that he was involved in the publication process and that the book contained no speech by him. He pointed out “that several people were on the truck, but he was the only person charged.”

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights said the Thanyaburi Provincial Court “ruled that, although the content of the book constitutes an offence under the royal defamation law, Nutchanon did not give any of the speeches and there was no evidence that he was the book’s owner or publisher,” and dismissed the charge.

However, the court ordered the confiscation of the books.