Black magic 112

Clipped from Prachatai

Prachatai reports that Bang-oen, a 26 year-old artist and activist, has been slapped with four years in prison, reduced to three for “useful evidence,” for “posting an image of the King and other royal family members on his Facebook account” that was considered “offensive.”

His charges under Article 112 and for computer crimes came, as usual, from a complaint by ultra-royalist Anon Klinkaew, self-proclaimed leader of the tiny snitch royalists who he calls the People’s Centre to Protect the Monarchy.

Bang-oen was accused of posting an image on 15 March 2022. He was “arrested on 6 April 2023 by a dozen police officers and was taken to the Technology Crime Suppression Division. He was released after being detained for a day with 90,000 baht as security.”

He was indicted on 28 June 2023, for posting the image of the king and other members of royal family with the caption “Lunatic, Power, Black Magic” as his Facebook cover photo. The image was also altered by having masks cover the royal faces.

The prosecutor argued that “the image and the caption led the public to misunderstand that royal family members were lunatics and used black magic to govern the country, resulting in damage to their reputation.”

That may sound laughable, but perhaps not in Thailand where superstition runs deep.

Bang-oen was again granted bail with the amount of surety doubled.

In court, Bang-oen “admitted that he posted the image himself but denied having the intention as alleged. He argued that the interpretation of an artwork depended on the individual’s personal experience and that the message, as a part of the image, should not be analysed separately.”

The deranged royalist complainant “viewed the messages … as hostile towards the monarchy, including messages such as ‘Down with dictatorship, long live democracy’, ‘Arts serves no one’, and ‘Free Arts’.” Prachatai explains that “ศิลปะปลดแอก ‘FreeArt’ is also the name of a movement regarded by conservatives as being anti-monarchy.”

On 29 January 2025, the Court “ruled that Bang-oen was guilty as charged.” Bang-oen is seeking bail to appeal.

Bang-oen has also been charged with lese majeste “for posting a picture of himself standing in front of a portrait of the King and Queen while holding a shoe toward the portrait.” He is also the “artist who spray-painted an anarchist symbol and the number 112 with a strike through it … onto the wall … [surrounding] the Grand Palace. In this case, he was charged under the Act on Ancient Monuments, Antiques, Objects of Art, and National Museum, and the Public Cleanliness Act. He was sentenced to eight months.”