{"id":21063,"date":"2026-05-28T07:55:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T07:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/thai-court-dismisses-royal-defamation-case-against-ex-opposition-leader-thanathorn-in-rare-ruling\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T07:55:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T07:55:44","slug":"thai-court-dismisses-royal-defamation-case-against-ex-opposition-leader-thanathorn-in-rare-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/thai-court-dismisses-royal-defamation-case-against-ex-opposition-leader-thanathorn-in-rare-ruling\/","title":{"rendered":"Thai court dismisses royal defamation case against ex-opposition leader Thanathorn in rare ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BANGKOK, May 28 — A Thai court today dismissed a royal defamation case against a former opposition leader over comments he made during the Covid-19 pandemic, in a rare ruling in favour of a prominent government critic.<\/p>\n

Thailand’s strict lese majeste law protects the royal family from criticism and carries jail terms of up to 15 years per offence.<\/p>\n

Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, former leader of the now-defunct Future Forward Party, was charged over a Facebook live broadcast in 2021 criticising the government’s procurement of Covid-19 vaccines, linked to a company owned by the king.<\/p>\n

Bangkok’s Criminal Court ruled the comments were aimed at then-prime minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha’s vaccine administration and did not amount to royal defamation, according to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights.<\/p>\n

“The evidence brought by the plaintiff was not sufficient,” the group wrote on social media.<\/p>\n

The verdict is a rare success for a major opposition figure, many of whom rights advocates say have been targeted by judicial processes because they are perceived as challenging to the nation’s conservative establishment.<\/p>\n

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At least three former MPs from the opposition Move Forward Party, a successor of Future Forward, have previously been sentenced under the lese majeste law over their political activities.<\/p>\n

Another 10 MPs, including the current opposition leader, Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, are under court investigation over their support to reform the strict law.<\/p>\n

If found guilty, they could face lifetime bans on holding political office and be stripped of their right to vote for 10 years.<\/p>\n

The 47-year-old heir to one of Thailand’s largest auto parts manufacturers, Thanathorn was banned from holding office in a separate case in 2020.<\/p>\n

But he remains active in politics and helped campaign for the People’s Party, the latest iteration of Future Forward, in the last election in February. — AFP<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Thai court dismisses royal defamation case against ex-opposition leader Thanathorn in rare ruling<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BANGKOK, May 28 — A Thai court today dismissed a royal defamation case against a former opposition leader over comments he made during the Covid-19 pandemic, in a rare ruling in favour of a prominent government critic. Thailand’s strict lese majeste law protects the royal family from criticism and carries jail terms of up to 15…<\/p>\n

Read More “Thai court dismisses royal defamation case against ex-opposition leader Thanathorn in rare ruling”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21063","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\/21063","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=21063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}