Thailand: Moving Forward MP Lookkate convicted of royal defamation

TActivist-turned-MP Chonthicha “Lookkate” Jangrew, a prominent figure in the country's pro-democracy movement and a member of the Move Forward party that galvanized public opinion during last year's parliamentary elections, was sentenced to two years on Monday jailed for royal defamation linked to his involvement in a protest in 2021.

Lookkate, who was recently included in TIME's Next Generation Leaders list, also released Monday, denies the accusation and has appealed. The court granted his release on bail until a final decision is made. However, if the conviction is upheld, Lookkate would be stripped of her status as an MP.

“TIME Magazine looks at me like [a] leader of the next generation trying to change the world,” Lookkate told TIME after leaving court on Monday in Pathum Thani, a province just north of Bangkok. “But in Thailand they see me as someone dangerous to society, or a criminal, which is really sad.”

The prosecution of Lookkate is the latest blow to the country's pro-democracy movement, which has been growing for a decade, when thousands of young protesters took to the streets to call for reform of the country's conservative, royal, military government. country.

“It's not just about my story, but also about political activists in Thailand,” Lookkate says, arguing that her criminalization under the country's controversial lèse-majesté law, which bans criticism of the monarchy, ” puts all activists in danger.

“The lèse-majesté conviction against Ms. Chonthicha is unfortunately not a surprise,” Akarachai Chaimaneekarakate, a representative of the legal advocacy group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), told TIME. “This is consistent with Thai courts’ practice of using the lese majeste law to silence and punish legitimate critics of the monarchy.”

According to the TLHR, approximately 2,000 people have been prosecuted for political expression since 2020, including 272 charged with lese majeste offenses.

While the protest movement has faced strong resistance from authorities over the years, Lookkate is part of a new generation of Thai activists who have sought to bring their reform agenda to the government through politics.

“I realized one thing,” she told TIME in an interview in April. “If we want to make noise, we can't just make changes in the streets. We also need to gain power and use that power to effect change, to build a society we want to see. »

The Move Forward party, which advocated radical change, scored a surprise victory last May when it became the party with the most votes in national elections, winning a plurality of 151 seats in the 500-member House of Representatives. representatives. But the party has since been hobbled by political and legal challenges – from being prevented from becoming prime minister and forming a ruling coalition to the constant threat of dissolution by the Constitutional Court for its efforts to change the lèse-majesté law.

In December, Rukchanok Srinok, another Move Forward MP, was sentenced to six years in prison on charges including royal defamation. (She was also released on bail.)

As the Thai government, led by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, attempts to project a renewed image of political stability and economic viability, it has recently pushed for a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council.

But critics say high-profile cases such as Lookkate's as well as that of Netiporn Sanesangkhom, a 28-year-old detained activist who died earlier this month after going on a hunger strike to protest the justice system and imprisonment of political dissidents, highlight the blatant nature of the problem. the country's poor human rights record.

“As long as the price of fundamental freedoms is Thai lives or imprisonment,” says Akarachai, “Thailand does not deserve a seat on the UN Human Rights Council. »