Further updated: Another Siam Bioscience 112 case

Thai PBS reports that well known singer and TV personality Suthipongse Thatphithakkul (also rendered as Suthipong Tadpitakkul), known as “Heart”, has been “indicted on a lèse majesté charge in the Bangkok South Criminal Court” on 7 May 2024.

The prosecutor alleges that Suthipongse shared “a statement on his Facebook account, about the monarchy’s involvement in the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines in 2021, in a way deemed to defame the revered institution, in violation of Section 112 of the Criminal Code and the Computer Crime Act.”

He was granted bail on a 200,000 baht surety.

PPT has lost count of the number of cases related to the king’s Siam Bioscience and the Astrazenica COVID vaccine. Of course, at about the same time, Astrazenica withdrew the vaccine citing low demand and side effects.

Update 1: This case actually goes back to 2021. Back then, the 112 complaint was lodged by Seksakon “Rambo Isan” Atthawong, a red shirt turncoat rewarded by the military by being made assistant minister to the prime minister. Seksakon was previously known as Suporn.

Suporn was joined by Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha’s lawyer Apiwat Kanthong in lodging “another complaint” against Suthipong. They went to the Nang Loeng police station saying the singer had criticized the government’s vaccine procurement plan, alleging he may have also violated the lese majeste law and the Computer Crimes Act.

The earlier complaint was lodged with the Technology Crime Suppression Division. It seems that the complaint then also related to lese majeste and may be the same complaint.

In this “new” complaint, Suthipong was accused of having copied information on the government’s vaccine procurement plan to his Facebook page and “made additions.” He is accused of adding: “It is a vaccine of the boss” and “It is a Covid-19 vaccine monopoly.”

Lawyer Apiwat reckoned that anyone reading this would immediately know who he is talking about.” It’s not Gen Prayuth. It seems it is he whose name may not be said – the king.

The regime wants the police to seek more evidence and more information to substantiate the accusation against Suthipong. It took three years.

The oddity of a complaint and a possible charge for not saying the king’s name seems insane, even for royalist Thailand.

Update 2: Prachatai has answered our question above regarding how many Siam Bioscience lese majeste cases. It reports:

… Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, former leader of the now-defunct Future Forward Party and current leader of the Progressive Movement, was charged with royal defamation [lese majeste] over an 18 January 2021 Facebook live broadcast, during which he said that the Thai government only bought vaccines from AstraZeneca and Sinovac because it wanted to support Siam BioScience Co. Ltd…. Thanathorn was indicted in April 2022. Meanwhile, a court order was issued banning the video.

Student activists Benja Apan and Parit Chiwarak were charged with royal defamation, violation of the Emergency Decree, the Communicable Diseases Act, and the Sound Amplifier Act for a 25 January 2021 protest at the Srijulsup building, where Siam BioScience’s registered office is located.

5 students in Lampang were also charged with royal defamation for displaying a banner saying “Budget for monarchy > Covid-19 vaccines.” A student at the Rajabhat University, Chiang Rai, was later charged with royal defamation for posting a picture of the banner onto the Facebook page “Free Youth – CEI.” Police believe that she was involved in hanging the banner near to King Vajiralongkorn’s portrait.

On 3 March 2021, activist Piyarat Chongthep, now a Move Forward Party MP, was charged with royal defamation for 7 protest signs against the government’s vaccine policy and for posting pictures of the signs.

A 30-year-old man from Nonthaburi was charged with royal defamation for sharing Facebook posts alleging that Siam BioScience was using taxpayer’s money to produce the vaccines. He was indicted in June 2023. In October 2023, he was found guilty and given a suspended sentence of 1 year and 6 months.

Dangerous, barking mad royalist

Thaiger reports that Tossaporn Srirak a former Puea Thai Party MP faces a sedition charge following a complaint made to police by ultra-royalist Sonthiya Sawasdee, a saying he is “former adviser to the House committee on law, justice, and human rights.” By our reckoning the quite looney Sonthiya knows nothing of justice or human rights, but is an active lawfarist.

He believes that wondering aloud if the troubles on the streets of Sri Lanka, due to food and fuel shortages, forcing the nation’s president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, to flee for his life and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s troubles was facing Thailand under the General amounts to sedition, “whipping up hate against the PM Prayut Chan-o-cha…”.

The mad monarchist “urged police to launch an investigation into Tossaporn because he believes his Facebook post ‘Do you want it like the UK or Sri Lanka?’ could be interpreted as a call for unlawful insurrection against PM Prayut and his government.”

Of course, Sonthiya has a long record of taking up royalist and rightist causes. Back in 2015, Sonthiya, then reported to be “a representative of a political group called the Federation to Monitor the Thai State,” filed a complaint with the Crime Suppression Division against then US Ambassador Glyn Davies for a talk at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand where he expressed concern about “the lengthy and unprecedented prison sentences handed down by Thai military courts against civilians for violating the lese majeste law…”. He added that “[n]o one should be jailed for peacefully expressing their opinion…”. Sonthiya screamed lese majeste.

In 2018, it was a madder Sonthiya who demanded the Election Commission to investigate the newly-formed Future Forward Party and whether it might amend the lese majeste law.He said Article 112 was off limits.

He was especially “busy” in 2021, trying to see off the calls for reform, including to the feudal monarchy. In April, Sonthiya urged police to investigate Jatuporn Promphan for lese majeste following a speech to a protest for the Sammakhi Prachachon Pheu Prathet Thai (People’s Unity for Thailand). The protest was about ousting the General, but Sonthiya thought anti-monarchism was at work, presumably because Gen Prayuth is a royalist and his regime a lackey for the palace.

Then in May, by then Palang Pracharath Party member, Sonthiya demanded that the Criminal Court review its decision to free lese majeste detainee Parit Chiwarak on bail after the protest leader was accused of violating his bail conditions in a social media post.

By July, Sonthiya was working a tag-team with red shirt traitor and now regime flunky Seksakol [Suporn] Atthawong to bring charges against opposition politician Sudarat Keyuraphan for “wrongly accusing the government of poorly managing the Covid-19 crisis.” This was deemed not a fact but defamatory.

And, in November Sonthiya was (barking) mad that Miss Universe Thailand Anchilee Scott-Kemmis for standing on what looks like a Thai flag in a picture released online in a promotional campaign before Anchilee competed in the 70th Miss Universe pageant in Israel. Sonthiya wnated her investigated for breaching the 1979 Flag Act and a PM’s Office announcement banning the use of national flags for commercial purposes.

The problem with mad monarchists is that they are often taken seriously by royalist regimes, police, judges, and prosecutors.

Royalist regime fighting for the past

While not a new revelation, Marwaan Macan-Marker’s article at Nikkei Asia is revealing of change on the monarchy. The royalists are fighting to restore what increasingly looks like the past. But it isn’t clear if they can prevail, at least in the short- to medium-term, given the huge resources the military-backed regime has been expending on shoring up a declining monarchy.

He explains:

Self-crowned

On a recent visit to a cinema in Bangkok, I was reminded of the dual role that movie theaters play in Thailand. One, of course, is to show films, local and foreign. The other is to reinforce in the audience a belief that their monarch serves as a unifying pillar in the Southeast Asian kingdom. That lesson plays out just before the main feature, when the screen in the darkened auditorium displays a message requesting the audience to stand as the strains of the king’s anthem fill the hall, accompanied by images of the king’s achievements….

The response of audiences — standing up for the anthem — was almost universal until the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej in late 2016 ended a 70-year reign.

We think this is something of an overstatement. We recall that in the mid-1970s, when the royal stuff came on at the end of the film, many bolted for the exits to escape the hagiographic kitsch. By the late 1990s and early 2000s, audiences at movies and concerts often waited outside until the royal propaganda was finished and then rushed to their seats. But back to the story today:

But something quite different is now going on in cinemas….

[A]t Siam Paragon, a high-end mall in Bangkok’s upmarket shopping district…, [w]hen the familiar request to stand flashed across the screen to the strains of the royal anthem, only a middle-aged Thai couple stood up. The rest of the audience, which mostly consisted of younger Thais, sat impassively through the entire anthem as if it were perfectly normal.

… The display of silent defiance has gathered momentum in recent months; it has been noted by many Thais on social media and is discussed openly….

For the moment, the government appears at a loss on how to respond to this discreet but public challenge to the cinema reverence ritual. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the ex-army chief and former junta leader, has appealed to young people not to give in to peer pressure.

Yet, Thai cinemas have emerged as a new frontier for a generational zeitgeist. They have given a decisive answer to the question of whether or not to stand, something that seemed inconceivable just two years ago. From this perspective, Thai cinemas provide an inflection point in which the simple act of going to the movies becomes a political statement.

The royalist response to this anti-monarchism – or at least the rejection of the palace propaganda – is deepening. As they have for many years, it is the regime and the military are taking the lead.

Former red shirt, now paid turncoat, Seksakol/Suporn Atthawong, a vice minister attached to the Office of Prime Minister continues his boss’s conspiracy theory-inspired campaign against NGOs. Amnesty International is his main target. He claims – and it is a lie – that “NGOs that are supporting the three-hoof mob [he means the 3-finger salute] to destroy the country’s stability and abolish the royal institution…”. He means the monarchy.

He salivates over the AI target:

Amnesty International is an illicit organization that must be held accountable for its actions, and must be prosecuted to the fullest…. We should not give in to organizations that undermine national security.

Here, by national security, he means the monarchy. What did happen to his lese majeste charge? Oh, yes, he sold himself to the military rightists.

As in so many other places struggling with authoritarianism,

Seksakol’s gambit is typical of Thai ultra-royalist fringe politics. But as his position in the prime minister’s office attests, the fringe has migrated gradually to the center and the top of the Thai governing establishment since the military coup led by Prayut 2014. Facing a legitimacy deficit, Prayut’s current military-backed administration (direct military rule technically ended with the holding of a flawed election in 2019) has relied heavily on the blunt force of Thailand’s controversial lese majeste law, which outlaws any critical comment about the king or the monarchy, to silence critics and quash protests.

The regime is planning to stay. Forget all of the parliamentary realigning. This is about maintaining the political status quo well into the future through another rigged election. And just to help it along, the regime has extended its state of emergency. Thailand has been under this kind of draconian control for most of the period since the 2014 coup. This situation allows the military, police, ISOC and the judiciary to keep a lid on anti-royalism.

How it deals with the more passive rejection of the monarchy and the regime requires more propaganda, more surveillance and more repression. It means keeping Thailand in its past and rejecting the future. All in the name of the monarchy.

Anti-human rights group rallies for regime II

Another flock of about 40-50 ultra-monarchists and regime puppets, arranged by the regime, “rallied” on Tuesday, calling for the military-backed regime to expel Amnesty International from the country, grumbling in terms that draw on Land Destroyer-New Atlas conspiracy theories. They believe – or so they say – that Amnesty seeking to bring down the regime and its German-based monarch. Of course, this is nothing more than a reflection of the regime’s own desires and efforts.

Displaying placards of the of toxic turncoat Suporn Atthawong, now known as Seksakol, an assistant minister in the Prime Minister’s Office alongside a Chinese dragon, the “protesters,” mostly from a pro-Prayuth Chan-ocha group, seemed more intent on showing that “there are working people in their 30s who are not supporters of the anti-establishment movement….” than in ousting Amnesty.

Clipped from Thai PBS

More broadly, these royalist conspiracy conspiracists “claim that organizations like Amnesty are looking to destabilize the country. They say that the group has political objectives, such as advocating for the amendment of the constitution that could lead to the overthrowing of the constitutional monarchy system or the amendment of the lese-majeste law.”

The usual gaggle of regime supporters and propagandists are getting behind Gen Prayuth’s order for Amnesty to be “investigated.”

The junta’s senator Somchai Sawaengkarn “told reporters on Friday that he agreed with Prayut’s instruction.” Of course he does; he’s a consumer of mad monarchist conspiracies that go back to the fictional Finland Plot. He gets quite agitated: “there are questions whether Amnesty International Thailand has been guiding protests and providing financial support for violent protests in Thailand…”. This is utter nonsense, but that has never bothered Somchai. He added that “the Anti-Money Laundering Office should also investigate other organizations to find out if any of them have been operating beyond their scope of duties or interfering with the country’s affairs.”

You get the picture. This is a Constitutional Court-emboldened effort to further autocratize and monarchize Thailand.

Somchai is joined by another military-aligned propagandist Panitan Wattanayagorn. He’s said to be “a lecturer in political science at Chulalongkorn University,” when he’s really an adviser to the regime and, in PPT’s view, not an academic by any stretch of the imagination. He also claimed that “some” rights organizations “have interfered in politics…”.

You can see where this is going. As a regime mouthpiece, he’s warning all human rights defenders that they cannot accurately report on the regime and its many human rights abuses.

Meanwhile, police spokesperson Pol Col Kissana Phatthanacharoen has said that Gen Prayuth “has ordered the Ministry of Interior and the Royal Thai Police (RTP) to look into the matter…. The RTP is now investigating whether the non-government organisation had committed any offences in a way that could affect national security and the monarchy…”.

Next the regime will target (more) foreigners, and those “associated” with “foreigners,” and who speak out on these matters, including journalists. The regime is seeking to tame and “retrain” them in how to (not) report (on regime and monarchy).

Anti-human rights group rallies for regime I

A flock of “protesters” claimed to be ultra-monarchists and ultra-nationalists, and arranged by the regime, “rallied” at Government House on Thursday, bleating that “the government expel Amnesty International (AI) from the country for allegedly interfering in internal affairs.”

The Centre of the People for the Protection of Monarchy is led by Jakkapong Klinkaew,who gets wheeled out at critical times to promote the regime’s political interests. This has included calls for lese majeste charges (the regime was pleased to oblige, again and again) and for bail to be revoked for young activists accused of lese majeste (and, again, the regime has complied).

Less successful due to the conflicting message it sent was the group’s earlier call for Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit to be sent packing from Thailand. The group’s racist taunts “questioned his loyalty to Thailand by pointing out his ethnic Chinese ancestry.” As news reports explained, this was ironic as “many of the ultraroyalists in Thailand who are opposed to any democratic reforms are themselves of ethnic Chinese heritage.” So are the most significant supporters of the regime, from the tycoons to the palace.

In the latest “rally,” the “protesters” were welcomed into Government House and “submitted a letter, addressed to Prime Minister [Gen] Prayut Chan-o-cha, demanding that authorities investigate the role and activities of AI’s Thailand office, to determine whether they amount to a threat against national security and the monarchy.” This followed the work of toxic turncoat Suporn Atthawong, now known as Seksakol, an assistant minister in the Prime Minister’s Office.

The group – and the regime – are irked by campaigning that urges fair, constitutional, and legal treatment for political detainees. It claims that AI has undermined national security – code for undermining the monarchy.

While it remains unclear whether these buffoons can distinguish between AI internationally and locally, they have “claimed that AI’s conduct could be seen as pulling the strings of anti-establishment groups in Thailand, to undermine the Thai monarchy.”

AI Thailand has “issued a statement refuting all allegations. It claimed that AI is a movement of about 10 million ordinary people across the world which is dedicated to the protection of human rights, social equality and fairness for all and it is free from political affiliations.” It is supported by donations. It stated that AI “will continue to perform its duties to protect human rights for people whose rights are being breached ‘because we firmly believe that every man is born equal and should not be oppressed…’.” AI has been officially registered in Thailand since 2003.

Again, the regime has accepted the ultra-royalist (self)coaching and Gen Prayuth “has ordered a probe into Amnesty International Thailand to determine if the human rights watchdog is operating in compliance with Thai law.” If it has violated the “law,” the 2014 coup leader said “it will be banned.”

The general added that “he does not want anyone or any group to speak ill about the country.” He means the regime. He added that “the government is seeking to make sure that NGOs act in a transparent way.” This is code for closing down NGOs, a path taken by several other authoritarian regimes. The irony is that the regime itself lacks any transparency.

Lapdog foreign minister Don Pramudwinai, who prefers dealing with dictators at home and abroad, pointed to “good and bad NGOs…”, providing direction for those clamoring for an even greater unfreedom in Thailand.

Updated: Toxic turncoats and the barking mad

Suporn Atthawong, now known as Seksakol, an assistant minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, wants Amnesty International banned in Thailand and expelled from the country.

Suporn/Seksakol is a former red shirt who seems – no one is saying – flipped to the military junta to escape a string of charges his one-time opponents brought against him, including terrorism and lese majeste. Remarkably, by mid-2018, Suporn had pledged himself to support of the post-2014 coup regime’s concocted political party and, following the junta’s rigged 2019 election, to the ongoing premiership of Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha. For working to deliver red shirts to the regime’s party, the quisling was rewarded by being made a deputy minister. He now works as a loyalist assistant to Prayuth, the man who had some of those charges brought against him.

The quisling has been supported by Anon Saennan, described as “the ex-leader of the protest group Red-Shirt Villages of Thailand but still a member, said the group will launch a campaign to pressure the group [Amnesty International] to stop operating in the kingdom.”

Interestingly, Amnesty International had a terrible record on lese majeste when its “representative” in Bangkok was Benjamin Zawacki. He spent a lot of energy arguing that the reign of the dead king promoted human rights. He seemed to hold sway and AI received fierce criticism. More of less until Zawacki departed AI in 2012, AI tended to neglect and downplay lese majeste, including the conditions of those imprisoned on the charge. Since then, it has gradually rehabilitated itself and taken a firm stand on human rights in Thailand.

That seems to be the issue for the execrable Suporn (or whatever name he now uses). Getting up his nose – and his bosses – seems to be AI’s criticism’s of the regime’s “treatment of political protesters on several occasions, the latest of which followed the Constitutional Court’s ruling on the actions of anti-government protesters Anon Nampa, Panupong Jadnok and Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul.”

Anon and other rightists-for-hire babble that AI “is turning a blind eye to the protesters’ lack of respect for the higher institution, a reference to the monarchy.”

It seems that mad monarchists have come to see the king as having his rights infringed even when he’s in Germany.

Update: A reader rightly says that we should have made it clear that the focus of the mad monarchist turncoats is AI Thailand. That reader also pointed out that Zawacki was a researcher for AI in its international version. That’s also true, so we made representative read “representative” above. That said, we maintain that Zawacki was seen by many, including in the media, as speaking for AI and represented it in meetings. At the time, we posted several times on Zawacki and AI.

Reflecting the regime I

Some recent reports would be funny if they weren’t serious. These reports shed light on the nature of the regime.

Thai Enquirer reports on a turncoat politician. This time it is not the execrable Suporn/Seksakol Atthawong but “Ruangkrai Leekitwattana, a former party-list MP for the Pheu Thai Party turned member of the pro-junta and ruling Palang Pracharath Party, is not the brightest bulb in parliament.”

It may be that Ruangkrai is a complete lug nut or he might just be reflecting the level of impunity afforded the regime and its members when he is “telling everyone that he received two Mercedes from ‘kind adults’ since he switched sides.”

Clipped from Thai Enquirer

Author Erich Parpart is right to wonder “what is the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) doing?” He might have added the National Anti-Corruption Commission, but we all know that they are hopeless accessories of the regime.

Like Suporn, Ruangkrai is a useful political stooge. He has recently petitioned the “Election Commission (EC) to investigate the Move Forward Party (MFP) for bringing up the palace bureau during budget debate” and wants the party dissolved by the Constitutional Court. Both organizations are also regime accessories.

While mentioning the hopeless NACC, let’s nod to the story that the agency needs another “16 months to complete its investigation into alleged mishandling, by 15 officials, of the controversial hit-and-run case against Red Bull heir, Vorayuth ‘Boss’ Yoovidhya, including both retired and active high-ranking police officers and senior prosecutors.” No one who has followed this story of the escaped but very rich (alleged) cop killer would be at all surprised. After all, the cases against Vorayuth have gone on and on since 2012, with many of them expired and the rest of them buried, delayed and forgotten.

Both Ruangkrai and Vorayuth show how the legal system in Thailand is not just corrupt but provides a means to escape justice. Under the junta-cum-military-backed regime, what we used to call double standards in the judicial system has been transformed into a sytem of political repression with limited attention to anything resembling justice.

Wages and sin

Suporn Atthawong was once a red shirt. He was once charged with lese majeste. But about the time that the junta was hoovering up possible allies in the northeast, his 112 case was dropped after Suporn gave his support to the junta party and was rewarded by being made an “assistant minister.” The wages of sin, treason, and grassing-up your former comrades. He also changed his name to Seksakol, apparently meant to whitewash his bad karma.

His “job” as turncoat, weasel, and snitch has been to bribe former allies across to the post-junta side and to run regime legal errands such as making complaints that lead to charges of lese majeste and more. He’s not a person with morals or scruples and presumably his chameleon qualities are not recent. Some on social media reckon he was a regime stooge when a red shirt.

Adding to his rubbish reputation, according to the Bangkok Post, “Seksakol” has run another legal errand for the military-backed regime, targeting red shirt “Nattawut Saikua over his role in Sunday’s car mob rallies.”

Weasel

The complaint he filed with the Crime Suppression Division “accused the red-shirt leader of violating the emergency decree, the communicable disease control law and Section 116, the provision for sedition.” It seems “sedition” is that “Nattawut had plotted to instigate unrest, noting that the red-shirt leader urged the anti-government protesters to join the rallies even though the recent demonstrations have been marred by violence.”

Seksakol said he would also “ask the Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) to examine Mr Nattawut’s financial transactions since 2010 because he was suspicious that the protests could be sponsored by people overseas.”

The claim is a repetition of deep yellow shirt social media accusations that Nattawut is in the pay of Thaksin Shinawatra. It is also a claim that the yellow shirts directed at Seksakol when he was a red shirt. Now he’s in the pay of the authoritarian regime that is populated by those who murdered his (supposed) comrades in 2010.

Updated: Masters of repression II

Lawfare is a tool authoritarian regimes use for political repression. Thailand’s military-backed/monarchist regime has become particularly adept at this means of silencing criticism. There’s been a blizzard of cases of late, even excluding the obvious and odious lese majeste cases.

Just in the past days or so, there have been several cases that warrant attention.

One case involves the Government Pharmaceutical Organization, reported by Reuters to have “initiated a defamation suit against the prominent chairman of a private hospital operator over his criticism of its procurement of Moderna (MRNA.O) COVID-19 vaccines.” He’s been a critic so he’s targeted. Interestingly, after this criticism, the GPO seemed to suddenly get moving on procurement. All vaccine procurement – and not just in Thailand – remains incredibly opaque.

A second case is reported by The Nation and involves the Royal Thai Army. Army chief General Narongpan Jittkaewtae has bellowed that “eight Facebook users and one Twitter user will be arrested over defamation charges” and can expect jail time, fines or both. His anger is because they shared information suggesting that “Thai soldiers were being flown to the United States for Covid-19 booster shots.”

The army claims that the soldiers were not heading off for the “Strategic Airborne Operation at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.” The army didn’t help its case by initially declaring that the soldiers were involved in Cobra Gold, which has nothing to do with travel to the USA.

A third case is reported in two related stories at Thai Enquirer and Prachatai. The toady National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission has ordered Voice TV “to take its programs off the Video To Home 9 TV (V2H9TV) channel…”. The NBTC claims the channel infringed “regulations when it aired … programs on April 27 which covered the protests Standing Still to Stop Incarceration (ยืนหยุดขัง), the White Ribbons (ผูกโบว์ขาว) and the Let Our Friends Go (ปล่อยเพื่อนเรา)…”. Other live protest broadcasts are reportedly being “investigated.”

In other words, the regime is using the NBTC to prevent Voice TV from providing live coverage of protests.

The NBTC has fined the MVTV company 50,000 baht for airing Voice TV’s “Voice Go” programme, “claiming that the content of the programme affects national security.”

The broadcast on the PSI satellite network on 27 April “was a report on the protest in front of the Supreme Court, in which a group of student activists from Thammasat University occupied an area on the footpath to demand the release of student activists then under detention. The programme also featured interviews with protesters on the reasons for their activities.”

The NBTC “stated that the content of the programme affected national security, peace, and public morals.” In fact, the reason for these moves is to remove opposition criticism.

A fourth case involves more defamation and sedition charges as the regime seeks to shutdown critical commentary on its botched vaccine rollout.

In this case, the regime has gone after veteran politician Sudarat Keyuraphan, with red shirt traitor and now regime flunky Seksakol [Suporn] Atthawong and spineless regime doormat, Sonthiya Sawasdee, adviser to the House committee on law, justice and human rights filing charges.

Sudarat’s Sang Thai Party has been campaigning to sue the “murderous government” for “mismanagement of the Covid-19 crisis.”

She’s accused sedition and defamation.

The regime’s mouthpiece Seksakol claims that Sudarat has been “wrongly accusing the government of poorly managing the Covid-19 crisis. This was defamatory, according to Mr Seksakol.” He’s an idiot working for a ridiculous regime, making ridiculous claims while botching the crisis. Only diehard regime supporters would think that the regime’s recent virus work has been anything other than a deadly farce.

The execrable Seksakol made it clear that the charges were to prevent “disharmony in society.” In other words, support the regime or else.

Update: On the attack on Sudarat, consider the commentary by Thitinan Pongsudhirak, which is highly recommended as a full read:

Thailand’s vaccine rollout is evidently a complete shambles due to questionable procurement, supply shortage, and misallocation amid a deadly surge of the Covid-19 “Delta” variant. The situation has been going from bad to worse with no end in sight as a poorly conceived strategy unfolds into a national calamity. As public anger mounts with fast-spreading calls for Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s ouster, the Covid-19 pandemic is becoming Thailand’s political game-changer more than anyone could have anticipated.

Instead of the youth-led political movement or the parliamentary opposition’s demands for reform, fundamental political change in this country will likely cascade from the Prayut government’s gross mishandling that is claiming lives, inflicting daily hardships, and causing unhappiness nationwide. When the time comes to pick up the pieces with more abundant and efficacious vaccines with virus control under way, a national inquiry for public accountability will be imperative….

What sets Thailand apart are what appears to be inherent nepotism and vested interests where people suspect there is more than meets the eye behind the country’s vaccination procurement. For inhabitants of this country, it matters less that other countries are suffering the same conditions, but that the country they live in can and should be doing much better. What’s worse, the Prayut government keeps repeating the same mistakes and making matters worse by the day.

Is he up for a state defamation action too?

Updated: Chulabhorn lese majeste

A property appraiser is facing prosecution for alleged lese majeste and computer crimes associated with comments reportedly targeting Princess Chulabhorn’s recent political and business intervention over vaccination.

As is becoming usual, it was Seksakol Atthawong and Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha’s lawyer Apiwat Khanthong who “filed a formal complaint with Nang Loeng police in Bangkok against Sophon Pornchokchai…”, a man working in real estate.

They allege that “Sophon violated the lèse-majesté law and uploaded false information into the computer system.” Seksakol claimed Sophon “posted a message on social media that offended the ‘institution’ [he means monarchy]…”, even if the post had since been removed. Because the “post attracted public attention,” the rabid and official royalist protectors declared “[l]egal action was in order…”.

Apparently no names were mentioned in the post, but Seksakol declared “[p]eople who read the message understood straight away what it meant…”. He added that a “part of the message also defamed the government…”.

We are not quite sure why, but Seksakol lied that “he and Mr Apiwat, as ordinary citizens, asked the police to press charges against Mr Sophon.”

Seksakol urged vigilante action across the country, saying “[a]nyone who comes across statements or messages that violate lèse-majesté can lodge a complaint with police…”.

Sophon denied the accusation, “saying he and his family have always been loyal to the monarchy.” He said his post “about a vaccine issue and the Chulabhorn Royal Academy should not be misinterpreted because he has never had bad thoughts about the monarchy…”.

As a footnote, it is of some interest that the Bangkok Post recently reported that the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society took “legal action against architect Duangrit Bunnag and Accap Assets Co, a real estate company, for allegedly fabricating documents about the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine and spreading fake news about it. It says the claims discredit the government.” What’s happening in real estate and why their flap over Chulabhorn’s intervention?

Update: Of course, we should have observed that the lese majeste law does not apply to Chulabhorn. But as others have been investigated and charged with lese majeste for all kinds of offenses not covered by the 112 law, perhaps this is no surprise.