BANGKOK (AP) — An appeals court in Thailand on Friday reversed the acquittals of five people charged with impeding the motorcade of the country’s queen during pro-democracy demonstrations in 2020, handing them prison sentences ranging from 16 to 21 years.
The case stemmed from an incident on Oct. 14, 2020, on the fringes of a rally in Bangkok that was calling for democratic reforms, including to the privileges of the country’s powerful monarchy.
Prosecutors had alleged that the five knew that the royal motorcade — with a limousine carrying Queen Suthida, the wife of King Maha Vajiralongkorn, and his son, Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti, then 15 years old — was due to pass the area and that they had tried to block its route.
They were also were accused of scuffling with police officers who were securing the path and urging other protesters to sit in the road to stop the entourage’s passage.
The original case in Bangkok Criminal Court was brought under a rarely used law targeting actions intended “to harm the liberty of the queen, the heir apparent and the regent.” It specifies different levels of offensive behavior, with the gravest one punishable by the death penalty.
That court ruled in June 2023 that the evidence and testimony did not support the charges against the five, a rare legal victory for Thailand’s pro-democracy movement, which has often faced an uphill battle in the royalist conservative courts.
However, the Court of Appeal on Friday found it credible that all five defendants knew it was the queen’s motorcade and that they had engaged in conduct obstructing it, according to a summary of the verdict prepared by the legal aid group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights.
It judged that although they did not commit the highest degree of the offense, because the car was able to pass, they were still punished with the strictest allowable penalty because they had violated several laws in jointly attempting to commit an act of violence against the queen’s liberty.
Ekachai Hongkangwan, a veteran activist and social critic who has been attacked several times by unknown assailants, was sentenced to just over 21 years imprisonment, while the other four defendants each received 16 years.
Thai Lawyers for Human Rights said applications for bail were being filed for all five pending a further appeal to the Supreme Court.
The royal family is traditionally revered in Thailand. Its sacrosanct status is backed by a royal defamation law, which carries a prison sentence of up to 15 years, and is more actively prosecuted.
