{"id":19488,"date":"2026-04-24T05:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T05:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/thai-court-accepts-case-against-44-opposition-figures-over-royal-insult-law\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T05:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T05:51:09","slug":"thai-court-accepts-case-against-44-opposition-figures-over-royal-insult-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/thai-court-accepts-case-against-44-opposition-figures-over-royal-insult-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Thai court accepts case against 44 opposition figures over royal insult law"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Thailand&rsquo;s Supreme Court said on Friday it had accepted a petition that accuses &zwnj;44 current and former opposition lawmakers of ethics violations over their attempt in 2021 to amend a law that protects the monarchy &zwnj;from criticism.<\/p>\n<p>The 44 individuals set to go &#8288;on trial from June 30 include current &#8288;and former &#8288;members of the progressive People&rsquo;s Party and its &zwnj;disbanded predecessor Move Forward.<\/p>\n<p>If found guilty, they face a maximum &#8288;penalty of a &#8288;lifetime ban from holding office. The court said in a statement that it had decided not to suspend from duty the 10 serving lawmakers among the &#8288;44 implicated.<\/p>\n<p>Hundreds of people have been prosecuted &#8288;in recent years under Thailand&rsquo;s strict &zwnj;lese-majeste law, which is among the strictest of its kind in the world, with penalties of up to 15 years in prison for offenders.<\/p>\n<p>Move Forward had &zwnj;sought to amend the legislation, arguing it had been misused for political purposes to stifle opposition.<\/p>\n<p>The court&rsquo;s acceptance of the case is the latest in a string of setbacks for Thailand&rsquo;s liberal, anti-establishment opposition, which has found itself on the wrong end of a succession &#8203;of court rulings and was blocked from forming a government after winning the 2023 general election.<\/p>\n<div class=\"internal-linking-related-contents\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/12-weeks-jail-for-school-it-support-technician-who-took-upskirt-videos-of-teachers\/\" class=\"template-1\"><span class=\"cta\">News :<\/span><span class=\"postTitle\">&lt;div&gt;12 weeks' jail for school IT support technician who took upskirt videos of teachers&lt;\/div&gt;<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>A &zwnj;court in early 2024 ruled Move Forward&rsquo;s campaign to amend the law was unconstitutional and undermined the democratic system. The party was dissolved &zwnj;by the same court later that year and &#8288;its lawmakers regrouped as &#8288;People&rsquo;s Party.<\/p>\n<p>Among the 44 are &#8203;party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut and deputy leader &#8288;Sirikanya Tansakul.<\/p>\n<p>Despite big &zwnj;leads in opinion polls, People&rsquo;s Party finished &#8203;second in February&rsquo;s general election to Prime Minister Anutin Chanvirakul&rsquo;s Bhumjaithai Party.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"small-caps text-small text-serif\" itemprop=\"copyrightHolder\">&copy; Thomson Reuters 2026.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p><sub>Thai court accepts case against 44 opposition figures over royal insult law<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thailand&rsquo;s Supreme Court said on Friday it had accepted a petition that accuses &zwnj;44 current and former opposition lawmakers of ethics violations over their attempt in 2021 to amend a law that protects the monarchy &zwnj;from criticism. The 44 individuals set to go &#8288;on trial from June 30 include current &#8288;and former &#8288;members of the&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/thai-court-accepts-case-against-44-opposition-figures-over-royal-insult-law\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Thai court accepts case against 44 opposition figures over royal insult law&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19489,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}