Court looks comes weeks after Time magazine named Chonthicha Jangrew to record of younger officials
PUBLISHED: 26 May 2024 at 11:32
Move Forward Party MP Chonthicha Jangrew is scheduled to appear in Thanyaburi Provincial Court on Monday to discover a decision in a lese-majeste circumstance against her.
The jury look comes just days after Ms Chonthicha, 31, was named to the 2024 world record of Next Generation Leaders by Time magazine.
She was charged with royal slander under Section 112 of the Criminal Code for comments she made during a protest in front of the Thanyaburi Provincial Court in Pathum Thani on Sept 11, 2021.
A co-founder of the New Democracy Movement, Ms Chonthicha has been a prominent advocate since the 2014 defense revolution. She was one of 14 individuals arrested for staging an event to mark the second anniversary of the 2014 revolt on May 22, 2015, and immediately detained for 12 weeks.
“ I have to say that I never thought of being a legislator at all, ” she told Time magazine. “( But ) I realised one thing: if we want to make a sound, we cannot only make change on the street. We also need to get into electricity, and use this power to make a change — to create a world that we want to notice. ”
Ms Chonthicha is one of three MPs from the major opposition group facing royal slander costs.
Bangkok MP Rukchanok Srinork was sentenced in December 2023 to six years in prison, without expulsion, for lese-majeste and machine murder in connection with online comments she made between July 18 and Aug 9, 2021. She is currently free on parole while she appeals.
Piyarat “Toto” Jongthep, another Bangkok MP, faces three expenses under Part 112 in connection with his actions as a head of the WeVo soldiers during the anti-government demonstrations in 2020 and 2021.
According to statistics from Thai Lawyers for Human Rights to April 30 this month, 1,954 individuals have been prosecuted for social participation and appearance since the beginning of the Free Youth demonstrations in July 2020. At least 272 are facing lese-majeste expenses under Section 112 of the Criminal Code and 152 have been charged with sedition under Part 116.