Lawyer Arnon Nampa is already serving a four-year jail sentence for feedback in regards to the monarchy at a 2020 rally.
A courtroom in Thailand has sentenced a jailed activist and lawyer to an extra 4 years in jail for royal insults from a 2021 social media put up, his lawyer mentioned.
Arnon Nampa, 39, was given a four-year jail sentence on Wednesday in one of many nation’s high-profile lese majeste circumstances. He has already been serving a four-year jail sentence since September for his feedback in regards to the monarchy in a speech at a rally in 2020.
“Arnon has denied wrongdoing,” his lawyer Kritsadang Nutcharat mentioned, including that they’d enchantment and, if mandatory, take the case to the Supreme Court docket.
The 2 sentences would run consecutively, so Arnon will serve eight years.
Thailand’s lese majeste regulation protects the palace from any criticism, with royal insults punishable by a most jail sentence of as much as fifteen years for every perceived insult.
The regulation has been criticized as excessive by worldwide human rights organizations.
Wednesday’s verdict is the second in fourteen circumstances towards Arnon, a human rights lawyer led a democracy motion that held protests in Bangkok in 2020 calling for reform of the monarchy.
He opted to not apply for bail on his circumstances and remained in jail after the courtroom rejected an earlier request on the grounds that he would escape.
Not less than 262 folks have been charged with lese majeste since 2020, in response to Thai Attorneys for Human Rights, a authorized support group.
The decision is a setback for teams looking for to alter the lese majeste regulation, a key coverage proposal of the progressive Transfer Ahead occasion that gained probably the most seats in parliament in Might elections however was prevented from forming a authorities by conservative lawmakers . unelected Senate.
