Aged 112

Clipped from Prachatai, attributed to TLHR

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights reports that 18 March 2026, 2026, the Thanyaburi Provincial Court sentenced Chiraphon Butpaket to 3 years in jail for lese majeste.

Now aged 77, Chiraphon was charged Article 112 over her speech during a protest on 26 July 2023 at Thammasat University’s Rangsit Campus. At that event, Prachatai reports that “several protesters delivered speeches. At 6.40 pm, an anonymous participant, later identified as Chiraphon, took to the stage and delivered a speech.”

In that speech she used a three-finger salute and “allegedly expressed her opinion in a way that suggested she did not want the King to be above the law, and she also criticised past coups, raising concerns that the King supported and ratified them.”

Her speech enraged lese majeste vigilante, ultra-royalist, Anon Klinkaew, self-proclaimed leader of the ultra-royalist group People’s Centre to Protect the Monarchy.” He complained to the police.

The court “ruled that Chiraphon was guilty as charged and sentenced her to three years in prison. Due to her guilty plea, the term was reduced to one year and six months.” It reduced the sentence and suspended it as she “had never been imprisoned…”. She was also given a “one year of probation. She was also required to report to the probation officer every three months and to attend a dhamma training program once a month.”

Chiraphon claims she has been politically active since the 14 October 1973 and has been involved in “pro-democracy movements, including the Red Shirt Movement. Following the 2014 coup, she was summoned by the coup maker, the National Council for Peace and Order, for her previous political activities.”

She expresses her frustrations “with the state’s abuse of power and suppression of the people. Since then, she has continued to attend pro-democracy protests, particularly the youth-led mass protests in 2020.”

On the speech in 2023,  she says: “I believed that I was telling the truth, not defaming anyone. It was history…”. Chiraphon is now the oldest person to be prosecuted for lese majeste “following the mass protests in 2020.”