(Perhaps) good 112 news II

Clipped from Prachatai

Prachatai reports another piece of relatively good 112 news.

Piyarat Chongthep, an activist and now a People’s Party MP, has been acquitted of a lese majeste charge and violation of the Computer Crimes Act “over a speech he delivered at a 22 August 2020 protest in Ubon Ratchathani province.” Prachatai adds: “He faced three royal defamation charges, all of which resulted in acquittals.”

Then a member of the protest guard group We Volunteer, Piyarat delivered a speech that was livestreamed and “addressed the King’s power and the Thai military, while he also called for the separation of the royal power from the military.” He also reportedly made mention of repeated royal endorsements of military coups, “as well as the enactment of a law to transfer the 1st and 11th Infantry Regiments, previously in the military chain of command under the Royal Thai Army and the Ministry of Defence, to the King’s control.”

Following that protest, four people, including Piyarat, were prosecuted. Initially arrested on a sedition charge, after then Prime Minister Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha “announced that all applicable provisions would be enforced against pro-democracy protesters, the public prosecutor later added a royal defamation [112] charge against him.”

The details of the trial are of interest:

During the trial, a prosecution witness testified that he misunderstood Piyarat’s message, concluding that Piyarat called for reform of the monarchy rather than administrative reform concerning the military and the monarchy.

The witness added that he was unaware of the fact that the government had enacted a law transferring the military personnel to the King’s personal control.

It was also found that Piyarat was neither an administrator of the Facebook page nor the organiser of the protest.

Piyarat testified that he spoke in good faith, and the speech was based on historical facts. He argued that if a future coup is carried out by the military units under the King’s control, the King would be questioned by the general public. In order to preserve the revered institution, he suggested that the military should be separated from the monarchy’s control.

On 20 March 2026, the Ubon Ratchathani Provincial Court ruled to acquit Piyarat of all charges, “concluding that he merely expressed an opinion on the origin of the Constitution and the structure of relationships among state bodies, and that he did not commit the offences as charged.”

Given that other courts, and especially appeals courts, have ruled quite differently and in line with ultra-royalist orthodoxy, it may be expected that prosecutors will appeal. But, at least for a moment, another court has stepped just a little outside that orthodoxy.