BANGKOK • Thailand's government yesterday filed a criminal complaint of defaming the monarchy against a banned opposition politician after he criticised the country's Covid-19 vaccine strategy.
The move could mark the highest-profile lese-majeste case since a wave of anti-government protests emerged last year and extended to criticism of King Maha Vajiralongkorn over accusations of meddling in politics and taking too much power.
The complaint against Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit under Article 112 of the Criminal Code came two days after he said the government was too reliant on a company owned by the Crown Property Bureau, which is under the King's personal control, to produce vaccines for Thais.
He said the selection of palace-backed Siam Bioscience as a manufacturer for the AstraZeneca vaccine suggested it wanted to show "loyalty" to the monarchy.
The government on Tuesday defended its actions, saying Siam Bioscience was selected by AstraZeneca because of its capabilities.
Thailand's vaccine roll-out is expected to start next month.
Lese-majeste in Thailand punishes defaming or insulting the King by up to 15 years in prison.
Government officials who filed the complaint told reporters that Thanathorn had defamed the monarchy by linking it to the vaccine strategy.
"Thanathorn distorted facts and caused misunderstanding among people," Mr Suporn Atthawong, a minister in the Prime Minister's Office, told reporters.
The complaint, which also included a cybercrime accusation of uploading false information, came after Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha vowed on Tuesday to prosecute "distorted" information about the vaccine strategy.
"The more you discredit or harass me with legal cases, the clearer my suspicions become," Thanathorn, who was banned from politics for 10 years by a court last year, said in a Facebook post.
The Progressive Movement, headed by Thanathorn, said earlier that there was no insult in his comments at the group's event, titled "Royal Vaccine: Who Benefits and Who Doesn't?", and broadcast on Facebook Live on Monday.
"It's obvious that 112 is being used again as a political tool," Ms Pannika Wanich, Thanathorn's colleague and one of the group's leaders, told Reuters, referring to the law.
Mr Charles Santiago, a Malaysian lawmaker who chairs the Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights, called the move "yet another illustration of the cynical weaponisation of the lese-majeste law to stifle any form of criticism".
The Progressive Movement was formed after a court last year ruled to dissolve Thanathorn's Future Forward Party, which came in third in the 2019 election held five years after Mr Prayut's coup.
Thanathorn was scheduled to hold a briefing to respond to the government complaint today.
Separately, a Thai court on Tuesday sentenced a 65-year-old woman to more than 43 years in jail for sharing online posts criticising the royal family, her lawyer said, the country's harshest ever sentence for insulting the monarchy.
Anchan Preelert pleaded guilty to 29 separate violations of sharing and posting clips on YouTube and Facebook between 2014 and 2015, her lawyer, Ms Pawinee Chumsri, told Reuters.
Anchan was initially sentenced to 87 years, but because she had acknowledged her violations, the court halved this, the lawyer said.
REUTERS, BLOOMBERG
