Truth 112

Clipped from Prachatai, attributed to TLHR

Prachatai reports that, on 16 March 2026, the Appeals Court “ruled to uphold the guilty verdict against Atirut (last name withheld), a 29-year-old programmer charged with [lese majeste]… for shouting at a royal motorcade.”

Atirut was charged with lese majeste and with resisting arrest “for refusing to sit down” and for shouting “‘you are a burden wherever you go” as one of those tedious royal motorcades, this time carrying King Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida “passed a crowd gathered at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre (QSNCC) on 15 October 2022.”

Plainclothes officers then carried a struggling Atirut inside the convention center, “where he was detained in a room for an hour before being taken to Lumpini Police Station.”

He was also “to the Somdet Chaopraya Institute of Psychiatry, where he said staff tied him to a chair and demanded that a friend or family member come in to refuse treatment on his behalf before he could be released.”

He was indicted in January 2023, with the public prosecutor claiming “that what he shouted at the royal motorcade was inappropriate and insulting.”

Of course, many Thais grumble about these motorcades, knowing that public complaint will be punished.

Hence, the visit to the psychiatric hospital, followed by the prosecutor declaring that he was “trying to make people think that the King and Queen’s visit caused problems and burdened the public” – it does – and that stating this obvious fact “could lead to hatred of the King and Queen as well as damage their reputations.”

On 12 December 2023, the South Bangkok Criminal Court found him guilty and sentenced Atirut to 3 years and 2 months in prison, reduced to 1 year and 8 months “because he confessed.”

The appeal failed because the Appeals Court ruled that “calling the King and Queen a burden leads to hate, loss of faith, and conflict.”

Atirut’s lawyers have requested bail from the Supreme Court, which was granted pending an appeal.