Sophon’s 112 appeal rejected

Prachatai reports that Sophon (pseudonym), now 31 and a former private company employee, has been sentenced to 3 years in prison for throwing paint at a portrait of the King in front of a supermarket. This was a decision made on appeal in the Supreme Court.

He had been charged with various offenses, including lese majeste, for “driving by and throwing a bag of red paint at a portrait of King Vajiralongkorn displayed in front of a Lotus Supermarket in Pathumthani’s Rangsit district.”

Sophon entered a guilty plea to two of the minor charges but declared he was not guilty of lese majeste.

Back on 29 August 2023, the Thanyaburi Provincial Court found that he was indeed not guilty of lese majeste, “ruling that throwing paint onto the portrait does not constitute an offence under the royal defamation [Article 112] law. He was sentenced to to prison and fined on the minor charges and the sentence was suspended for 2 years.

Prosecutors appealed, and on 28 May 2025, the Appeal Court found  him guilty of lese majeste “on the grounds that damaging the portrait was inappropriate and defamatory against the King.” That court sentenced him to 3 years in prison, reduced to 2 years “because he gave useful testimony.” The court did not “suspend his sentence because he threw paint at portraits of the King displayed at several locations and publicised his actions.”

Sophon appealed to the Supreme Court.

On 14 January 2026, the Supreme Court found him guilty of 112 “for actions deemed to be disrespectful of the King.” The court seemed especially vengeful as Sophon was alleged to have “not only sent pictures of the damaged portraits to a group chat but posted them on Facebook, and that there are other posts with derisive comments about the King on his profile page. It therefore ruled that he meant to undermine public respect for the monarchy.”

It sentenced him to 3 years in prison, reduced to 2 years but not suspended.

Sophon faces 6 Article 112 charges, with all but one of these involving paint being thrown on portraits of the king. The other case involves spray painting. So far, criminal courts have found him not guilty on throwing paint, but in 4 of these, the Appeals Court has overturned these verdicts. At present, Sophon is facing over 16 years in prison. The case reported above is the first to have gone to the Supreme Court.