image copyrightReuters
The prisoners could hear them approaching before they even entered the courtroom. The shackles around his ankles jingled with every step.
The five prisoners who walked into the courtroom were already familiar with the procedure. They face multiple criminal prosecutions and have spent much of the past five years bouncing back and forth between prison and court.
One of the men, a short, bespectacled man with graying hair, opened his arms and picked up his three-year-old son, who was brought to the court by his partner to visit him.
He is 42-year-old human rights lawyer Arnon Nampa. His charge is to demand that Thailand's powerful monarchy be subject to oversight and accountability. In 2020, he dressed up as the young wizard at a Harry Potter-themed demonstration in central Bangkok to make the above demands.
On Friday, a Bangkok court found him guilty of violating Article 112 of Thailand's Penal Code, or "lese majeste," and sentenced him to two years and eight months in prison. Compared with other countries with similar laws, Thailand has imprisoned more people for perceived insults to the royal family than all other countries combined.
This is just one of the 14 cases Anon faces for the same crime, bringing his total sentence to more than 34 years so far. Two other cases are still pending.
He later told reporters: "To me, this is not surprising. If the country was more open, we would be able to discuss these issues freely."
image copyrightArnon Nampa’s family
In the past six years, Thailand has used lèse-majesté crimes on a scale that is unprecedented in its history. This was the authorities' response to the unprecedented student demonstrations in 2020. Protesters that year publicly demanded for the first time that the role of the monarchy be discussed.
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So far, 294 people have been prosecuted, 20 of whom were under 18 years old, and some were sentenced to up to 50 years in prison. Dozens of people are still being interrogated.
Most people charged under the law are not granted bail and must remain behind bars even as their cases drag on for years.
When Thai officials defend the law, they often point out that it "reflects Thailand's culture and history. In Thailand, the monarchy is one of the country's main pillars and is deeply respected by the majority of Thai people."
Article 112 of Thailand’s Penal Code is actually quite simple: “Any person who defames, insults or threatens the King, Queen, Heir to the Throne or Regent shall be punished with imprisonment from 3 to 15 years.”
In practice, however, the law has been interpreted to cover a much wider range of royal-related speech and to protect a much wider range of people than is listed on the letter.
Negative remarks about any member of the royal family, the monarchy itself, or even the long-dead king have resulted in prosecutions. One of the cases even involved the king's dog.
"If you ask me what the legal provisions say, I can tell you," said Akarachai Chaimaneekarakate, deputy director of the Thai Human Rights Lawyers Organization, which assists the defense of relevant defendants.
"But if you ask me how the court interprets 'defamation' or 'insult', I'm afraid I can't give you a definition because it's too vague and ambiguous. For example, even questioning the law itself may constitute lèse-majesté under Article 112."
image copyrightGetty Images
Anon has been held in Bangkok Remand Prison for the past three years. He continued to write letters to his young daughter and son from prison.
One letter read: "Dear Pran and Karl, my beloved children: the winter wind brings not only cool weather, but also brings back memories of the past. I miss the time when we left Bangkok to travel together in the first winter after Karl was born. It was such a wonderful time for me. I will miss that time every winter as long as I am not free again."
Anon appeared in court weeks before Friday's sentencing. Hearings like this have been Karl's only chance to see his son since he was a baby.
Carl was a little shy at first, but soon was happy to be held by his father and introduced to other prisoners. His 10-year-old sister Pulan sometimes visits her father in prison and often draws pictures for her father.
But Anon and his partner Lookwa believed Carl was too young to visit in prison. Now, Carl thought the court was just a place where Dad worked.
A group of supporters also came to the court, filling the small courtroom to capacity. They chatted happily with the prisoners, joking and exchanging news before the judge came in to begin the hearing.
For a group of men facing one of Thailand's most feared crimes, the occasion was surprisingly casual.
The effect of this law was to suppress almost all public discussion of the monarchy.
Until six years ago, opinions about the royal family were whispered in private. In a high-profile case, a taxi driver was jailed after a passenger reported something he said in the car.
This all changed on August 3, 2020.
That year, young Thais became increasingly dissatisfied with the conservative government led by coup leader and former general Prayuth Chan-ocha.
The previous year, millions of voters cast their votes for the Future Forward Party, a new political party that promised sweeping reforms. But in February 2020, the Constitutional Court ruled that the party should be dissolved on a technical legal ground.
After the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, demonstrations were suspended for three months. But as the number of infections in Thailand began to decline, students held rallies to demand an end to the military's interference in politics.
Arnon Nampa believes that this is still not enough.
He donned a Harry Potter costume and gave a speech arguing that it was time to discuss the opaque power and wealth of Thailand's monarchy.
He criticized King Maha Vajiralongkorn's decision to take personal control of the vast assets held by the Royal Property Administration, as well as key units of the military.
With just one speech, Anon broke a taboo that had long shrouded modern Thai society.
Student-led demonstrations continued throughout the remainder of that year, and demands for reform of the monarchy grew increasingly bold.
At the time, Thailand had suspended the use of lèse-majesté for three years. In the past, sources close to the royal family have acknowledged that the negative publicity generated by a lèse-majesté conviction may do more harm than good.
But the wave of demonstrations prompted authorities to quickly reassess the approach. Since the end of 2020, authorities have resumed prosecutions under this law, and the number of prosecutions has increased rapidly. Dozens of young activists have been forced into exile to avoid jail.
Supitcha Chailom, 24, is one of them. Nicknamed Melinn, she is from Chiang Mai in northern Thailand and now lives in Montreal, Canada, in exile after facing four charges of violating Article 112.
In 2020, just three weeks after Anon Nampa called for reform of the monarchy, Mei Lin, then only 18 years old and still a middle school student, stood up and spoke at a demonstration at Chiang Mai University.
A local photographer captured the moment she raised her hand to make the three-finger gesture from the movie "The Hunger Games," and the crowd immediately burst into cheers.
This photo became one of the most representative images of the demonstrations that year, and made Mei Lin a nationally famous figure.
She traveled across Thailand and became one of the leading voices in the movement, calling for reform of the country's antiquated education system and conducting opinion polls to understand people's views on the monarchy.
When she was interviewed by me in Canada, she said: "I like playing games and dream of becoming a game designer."
But her parents didn't agree with her idea.
"I feel like as a young person, I can't question my elders or discuss issues with them. The monarchy feels the same to me."
In November 2020, Mei Lin participated in a demonstration in the southern Thai city of Hat Yai and gave a speech comparing the royal treatment enjoyed by the king's dogs with that of ordinary people.
Nine months later, police served a summons on her home, charging her with lèse-majesté.
"I was very shocked. I wasn't expecting it at all because I was only talking about the dog."
"When the police came to my house with the summons, it was during the COVID-19 pandemic, so they knew my parents would be home with me. They were trying to stay calm, but I almost collapsed."
image copyrightGoodmondayshoot
Her family tried to convince her to cooperate with the authorities and admit she had made a mistake, but Merin refused.
She joined a movement organization called "Thalu Wang", whose name means "Breakthrough of the Royal Palace".
The organization no longer relies on speeches as its main mode of action, but instead takes some ingenious street actions, such as conducting opinion polls on the streets to ask people what they think about royal motorcades blocking traffic, or whether they think the monarchy has too much power.
"We knew the risks, but we thought it would be safer to just do a poll. That's not the case."
In 2022, she was charged with two more crimes of lèse-majesté and was detained for a time, but was later released on bail.
She must wear an electronic monitoring device on her ankle and must not leave home from 4pm to 6am every day.
Her parents were even forced to sign documents pledging to report her actions to the authorities.
Merlin faces decades in prison.
Believing she had no other choice, she fled Thailand with a friend and was eventually granted asylum in Canada.
Judging from the legal provisions, Article 112, like other laws, is passed by the Thai Parliament and can theoretically be revised by elected members of Parliament.
In fact, the law has been modified in the past, most importantly in 1976, when the penalty for violating this provision was increased to between three and 15 years in prison.
But now Thailand's Constitutional Court has ruled that the law, like the monarchy it protects, is untouchable.
The reformist Kadima Party is the successor party to the Future Kadima Party. The party was ordered to be disbanded by the court in 2024 just because it proposed to reduce relevant sentences, and its leader was also banned from politics.
The courts also make it difficult for people accused of violating the law to defend themselves.
"In many cases, including that of Anon Nampa, prosecutors have accused the defendants of making false statements about the royal family," said Akarachai of Thai Lawyers for Human Rights.
"But when we asked the judge to summon documents or witnesses to prove the truth of what the defendant said, the judge refused."
"Once, when a lawyer objected to the court's decision to hold a secret trial, the judge warned her to shut up or else she might be charged with contempt of court."
He said that sometimes before the trial even begins, the judge has already criticized young social activists for their alleged actions.
image copyrightArnon Nampa
As the man who first sparked public debate about the monarchy, Anon appears to be suffering the harshest punishment.
Despite facing many adverse conditions, he still carefully prepares for every court appearance, personally participates in the defense, and also assists other inmates in handling their cases.
It's not easy. He was not allowed to bring any written notes to court, so he had to keep all his defense arguments in mind.
The judge was dissatisfied with the fact that he was participating in the defense as a lawyer wearing prison-mandated brown shorts, bare feet and shackles. But appearing in court would at least give him a chance to see his family.
Otherwise, he can only keep in touch with his family through letters.
He could spend the rest of his life in prison. He hopes that his children will know their true self and understand why he chose to challenge the existing system when he grows up, even at the cost of losing his freedom.
Last year, he wrote to his family: "From the first day we decided to take on this mission, we knew the dangers involved. Telling the truth is not difficult. What is difficult is telling the truth that is forbidden to be told."
"I clearly remember that after speaking at the Harry Potter-themed event on the evening of August 3, 2020, I felt very good, satisfied and relieved, because I finally started to tell the truth in public."
Earlier this year, he wrote: "Living here is a struggle. But in the context of the entire struggle of the movement, this is just a small point. We must participate in writing our own history, becoming a drop of water that will one day form an ocean."
This article was originally written in English. We used artificial intelligence to assist in translation and was reviewed by BBC journalists before publication. Learn more about how we use artificial intelligence.
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