Lèse-majesté in Thailand
In Thailand, lèse-majesté is a criminal offense under Section 112 of the Thai Criminal Code, which prohibits any act that defames, insults, or threatens the King, the Queen, the heir-apparent, or the Regent. The provision reflects the long-standing doctrine of the monarch's inviolability within Thai political culture. Modern lèse-majesté legislation has existed since 1908, first appearing in the Rattanakosin era's Criminal Code influenced by continental European legal systems. Thailand remains the only constitutional monarchy in the world that has strengthened, rather than liberalized, its lèse-majesté laws following World War II.
With penalties ranging from three to fifteen years' imprisonment for each individual count, the law has been described by observers as the "world's harshest lèse majesté law" and "possibly the strictest criminal-defamation law anywhere." Its enforcement has often been characterized as being carried out "in the interest of the palace."
Since 1957, acts deemed insulting to the monarchy have been explicitly criminalized, a development that coincided with the rise of Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat's authoritarian regime. The law's wording leaves substantial room for interpretation, leading to controversy over its breadth and application. Broad interpretation reflects the inviolable and semi-divine status historically ascribed to Thai monarchs, resembling practices of feudal or absolute monarchies. The Supreme Court of Thailand has ruled that Section 112 also applies to deceased monarchs, thereby extending its reach beyond living members of the royal family. Furthermore, criticism of members of the Privy Council has occasionally prompted debate on whether lèse-majesté applies by association.
In practice, lèse-majesté charges have been filed for diverse acts—including satire, symbolic gestures, or online commentary. In extreme cases, even making sarcastic remarks about the King's pet dog or failing to rebuke others' insulting statements has resulted in prosecution. Anyone can file a lèse-majesté complaint, and under Thai legal practice, the police are obliged to formally investigate all allegations, regardless of motive.
The judicial process for lèse-majesté defendants has been repeatedly criticized by international observers. Details of charges are rarely made public due to state secrecy and censorship laws. Defendants often face months-long pretrial detention, and Thai courts routinely deny bail in nearly all Section 112 cases. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention determined that pretrial detention of alleged offenders constitutes a violation of international human rights law. Courts have sometimes declared that accusers do not need to prove the factual basis of the alleged defamation, only that the statements are "defamatory to the monarchy." As a result, many defendants choose to plead guilty and subsequently petition for a royal pardon, which is viewed as the fastest route to release.
Following the 1976 military coup, Thai military leaders have repeatedly invoked alleged surges in lèse-majesté offenses to justify political intervention. This rationale was cited during the 2006 and 2014 coups. Since the mid-2000s, the number of cases has risen sharply, extending to ordinary citizens and online activists, many of whom received lengthy prison terms.
International human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have condemned the use of lèse-majesté as a political tool to suppress dissent and stifle freedom of expression.
Under the 2014 military junta, the National Council for Peace and Order, jurisdiction over Section 112 cases was transferred to military courts, often resulting in secret trials and disproportionately harsh sentences. Between 2017 and 2020, the government briefly refrained from invoking Section 112, instead relying on the Computer Crimes Act and sedition provisions to prosecute perceived insults to the monarchy. The law was formally revived in November 2020 following growing pro-democracy protests.
In 2023, the Supreme Court of Thailand imposed a lifetime political ban on a former Move Forward Party parliamentarian, citing her lèse-majesté-related social media posts as grounds for disqualification. On 7 August 2024, the Constitutional Court issued a landmark decision banning the Move Forward Party—which had won the 2023 general election—and all of its leaders from politics, declaring that its proposal to reform Section 112 "posed a threat to the constitutional monarchy and national order."
In January 2024, the Chiang Rai Provincial Court sentenced activist Mongkhon Thirakot to 50 years' imprisonment for sharing online messages and Facebook posts deemed defamatory to the monarchy—the longest sentence ever imposed in a lèse-majesté case in Thai legal history, surpassing the previous record of 43 years handed down in 2021.
History
Origin and early developments
In the feudal era, monarchs, royal officials, royal symbols, and wrongdoings in the palace were protected from many kinds of "violation". Crimes against royal symbols greatly affected the social structure of the sakdina era.The oldest version of lèse-majesté law was in the modern defamation law of 1900, enacted to protect the monarch's reputation. It made acts against the king acts against the state.
The Siamese criminal code of 1908 separated the King and the state. It penalised persons who displayed malice or defamed the King, the
Queen Consort, the Heir-apparent, or the Regent. Anyone doing so was subject to imprisonment not exceeding seven years or fines of not more than 5,000 baht, or both. Other sections provided protection from displays of malice or defamation of "the princes or princesses from whichever reign" or from those who "create disloyalty" or "insult the king", and "cause the people to transgress the royal laws".
As the print media was becoming widespread, the criminal code was strengthened in 1928 to penalise crimes of "advocates or teachers of any political or economic doctrine or system, intended or calculated to bring into hatred or contempt the Sovereign".
Lèse-majesté law did not change significantly after the 1932 Siamese Revolution, because the Khana Ratsadon compromised and added the inviolable status of the king in the Constitution, which continues to the present day. However, the law included an exclusion clause for "an expression of good faith" or "a critical and unbiased comment on governmental or administrative acts". During that time, discussion about the monarchy was still free. This allowed discussion over whether Thailand be a constitutional monarchy in 1949, and a 1956 lecture by a legal scholar which said the king should not express an opinion on economic, political and social problems with no countersign.
1957 changes: criminalisation of insult
On 1January 1957, the criminal code of 1956 came into force. Since then, lèse-majesté forbade insult, in addition to the existing crimes of threats or defamation. The change broadly expanded the applicability of the law. Lèse-majesté was changed from an offense against the monarchy to an offense against national security, removing the right to express opinions which might be insulting to the monarchy if said within the spirit of the constitution.Claiming national security, Thai Cold War dictator Sarit Thanarat used lèse-majesté charges to suppress political opponents, leading to some executions. He also handed over lèse-majesté cases to courts-martial.
Court decisions shortly after the change still took context into consideration. In December 1957, a case against a politician was dismissed because a political campaign was underway.
Change after the 6 October 1976 massacre
On 21 October 1976, two weeks after the 6 October 1976 massacre and the same day coup by the National Administrative Reform Council, led by Admiral Sangad Chaloryu, NARC issued Order No.41 that including Article 112 revision to strengthen defamation laws as they explained in the order that current laws had been unsuitable for the unstable political situation at that time. They mentioned the Monarchy and religion for example. In Order No.41, the penalty for lèse-majesté was increased from a maximum of seven years imprisonment to three to fifteen years per count. Other than the Empire of Japan during World WarII, Thailand is the only constitutional monarchy that strengthened lèse-majesté in the 20th century.Between 1977 and 1986 when the royal power base grew among the urban middle class, the "kinship" and "bond" relationship was created between the people and the king as well as its modern "inviolable" status. Since then, court decisions and legal scholars' comments have interpreted the lèse-majesté law to mean the king could not be criticized in any way.
Examples of cases of insult include a politician, in 1988, who served four years in prison for suggesting that life would have been easier had he been born in the palace, and a man in 1976 who was arrested on charges of lèse-majesté for using a royal village scout scarf to wipe a table. Acts deemed insulting to the royal image include placing photographs of anybody on a website above those of the king. In March 2007, Oliver Jufer, a Swiss man, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for spray-painting graffiti over five posters of King Bhumibol while drunk in Chiang Mai, although he received a royal pardon the following month.
Political weaponisation
Between 1990 and 2005, there was an average of five new lèse-majesté cases per year. Since then, however, there have been at least 400 cases—an estimated 1,500 per cent increase. Prior to the 2006 coup, targets of lèse-majesté were mostly politicians, high-ranking bureaucrats and extra-constitutional figures, but after 2007, common people were charged. The law was interpreted to cover past monarchs and symbols associated with the monarch. No one had been sentenced to more than ten years in jail before 2007. Observers attributed the increasing number of lèse-majesté cases to King Bhumibol's public invitation of criticism in 2005, increased polarization following the 2006 military coup, and to speculation over his declining health in the period before his death in 2016.In 2005, cases registered in the Attorney General's office rose sharply from 12 new cases in 2000–2004 to 17. Thai Rak Thai and Democrat Party as well as opposition movement People's Alliance for Democracy traded lèse-majesté accusations. Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's alleged lèse-majesté was one of the stated reasons for the Thai military's 2006 coup. After the coup, dozens of radio stations were shut down because of alleged lèse-majesté.
Academics have been investigated, imprisoned and forced into exile over accusations of lèse-majesté. Prominent historian Somsak Jeamteerasakul was arrested for proposing an eight-point plan to reform of the monarchy. Giles Ji Ungpakorn went into exile in 2007 after his book, A Coup for the Rich, questioned Bhumibol's role in the 2006 coup. In March 2011, Worachet Pakeerat, a law lecturer, banded together with same-minded lecturers and formed the Nitirat Group, aiming to amend the lèse-majesté law. He proposed reducing the maximum jail term to three years, a circumstance for pardoning, and that only the Office of His Majesty's Principal Private Secretary could file a complaint. His actions angered many people. In February 2012, he was assaulted in broad daylight in Bangkok.
During the government of Yingluck Shinawatra, the number of arrests and convictions for lèse-majesté offences declined significantly. However, she said she would not seek to reform the law. There were 478 cases in 2010.
In May 2014, the National Council for Peace and Order, the military junta, granted authority to a military tribunal to prosecute lèse-majesté in Thailand. Military courts routinely imposed harsher sentences than civilian courts would. In August 2015, the Bangkok Military Court sentenced Pongsak Sriboonpeng to 60 years in prison for his six Facebook postings. This was Thailand's longest recorded sentence for lèse-majesté. The courts were dubbed "kangaroo courts." The military government has never successfully extradited someone living abroad.
iLaw, a Thai non-profit organisation, reported that the junta hold persons in custody for seven days without charges. Secret trials were held. Officials seized personal communication devices to search for incriminating evidence.
In December 2014, the parents of Srirasmi Suwadee, formerly a Thai princess, were sentenced for "insulting the royal family and lodging a malicious claim".
In 2015, Prachatai published an infographic showing that bathroom graffiti, a hand gesture, a hearsay report of a taxi conversation, and not standing during the playing of the royal anthem, among other things, could be punished as acts of lèse-majesté. A nurse wearing black on Bhumibol Adulyadej's birthday was charged with lèse-majesté.
The last formal attempt to amend the law occurred in May 2012 when more than 10,000 people signed a petition to parliament, but Speaker of the House of Representatives, Somsak Kiatsuranont, dismissed it citing that amendment of the law concerning the monarchy was not a constitutional right.