The activist and human rights lawyer Arnon Nampa was sentenced on Thursday to another four years in prison for lese-majeste and violations of the Computer Crime Act, according to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR).
The ruling follows three earlier convictions and brings to 14 years the amount of time Arnon must serve, with 10 more cases still pending. Sentences for royal defamation under Section 112 of the Criminal Code are consecutive and not concurrent.
Arnon, 39, has been detained at Bangkok Remand Prison since he was sentenced in the first case against him on Sept 26 last year. Several bail applications have been denied.
On Thursday the Criminal Court sentenced him to 6 years in jail for two social media posts between January and April 2021. The sentence was later reduced to 4 years because the court said he gave useful cooperation, according to his lawyers.
Arnon was sentenced in April this year to two years and 20 days and fined 100 baht for insulting the monarchy, violating an emergency decree and other charges. The ruling related to a Harry Potter-themed rally held outside the Bangkok Arts and Culture Centre in August 2021.
He was already serving eight years in prison on two charges of committing lese majeste, one stemming from a speech at a rally in 2020 and the other from a social media post in 2021.
Arnon has been a key figure in the youth-led democracy movement that held protests in Bangkok starting in mid-2020, calling for changes that controversially included reform of the monarchy.
According to data from TLHR to June 30 this year, 1,954 people have been prosecuted for political participation and expression since July 2020. At least 272 are facing charges under Section 112 and 152 have been charged with sedition under Section 116.
An arrest warrant was issued last month for another high-profile figure in the movement, Parit “Penguin” Chiwarak, after he failed to appear for a ruling in a lese-majeste case.
Mr Parit faces 25 charges related to violations of Section 112. He was free on bail but is believed to have fled the country, according to local media reports.
Attempts to amend the lese-majeste law, one of the toughest of its kind in the world, lie at the heart of a Constitutional Court case that could result in the dissolution of the opposition Move Forward Party. The ruling has been scheduled for Aug 7.
The amendments proposed by Move Forward included a requirement that any lese-majeste complaint must be filed by the Bureau of the Royal Household. Currently, any individual or group can file a royal defamation complaint against anyone else, and police are obliged to investigate it. As a result, the party has said, the law has been used by politicians and other authority figures to stifle dissenting opinions.
The party has also called for reduced sentences for lese-majeste convictions.
A conviction under Section 112 currently carries a sentence of between 3 and 15 years. Courts often cite the severity of the offence, based on the sentences, as the reason for denying bail to people awaiting trial or appealing their convictions.
Lawyer Arnon Nampa addresses a Harry Potter-themed rally held in front of the Bangkok Arts and Culture Centre at the Pathumwan intersection on Aug 3, 2021. (Photo: Thai Lawyers for Human Rights)