A Bangkok criminal court on Thursday acquitted Progressive Movement founder Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit on charges of royal defamation and cybercrime violations, ruling that a 2021 Facebook livestream in which he criticized the government’s COVID-19 vaccine procurement was aimed at the prime minister — not the monarchy. It is one of the rarest outcomes in Thailand’s lèse-majesté legal system.
The verdict was delivered at 9 a.m. at the Criminal Court on Ratchadaphisek Road, closing a case that had hung over one of the country’s most prominent progressive political figures for more than four years. Prosecutors from the Office of Criminal Litigation 5 had charged Thanathorn under Section 112 of the Criminal Code — the country’s lèse-majesté law — and the Computer Crime Act, alleging that his broadcast distorted information and implicated the monarchy in Thailand’s troubled vaccine rollout.
The case centered on a Facebook Live broadcast Thanathorn posted on January 18, 2021, under the title “Royal Vaccine: Who Benefits, Who Loses?” In it, he criticized the government’s decision to rely heavily on Siam Bioscience — a company owned by King Maha Vajiralongkorn — for COVID-19 vaccine production, arguing the arrangement had left Thailand dangerously short of doses. Prosecutors maintained that the broadcast was an attack on the institution of the monarchy. The court disagreed.
The Criminal Court found that Thanathorn’s comments were aimed at then-Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha and his administration’s management of the vaccine rollout, not at the monarchy itself. The court also found his statements about Siam Bioscience were factual and did not constitute defamation. He was cleared of both charges.
The 47-year-old told reporters outside the courthouse that he was relieved by the outcome and called on authorities to respect the rights of those still imprisoned for exercising free speech, according to several news sources.
Thanathorn’s lawyer, Krisadang Nutcharat, confirmed that prosecutors have 30 days from the verdict to file an appeal. The Office of the Attorney General did not respond to requests for comment on the day of the ruling. Acquittals under Section 112 are rare in Thailand, and appeals in unsuccessful lèse-majesté cases have historically been common.
Section 112 of the Criminal Code carries a prison sentence of up to 15 years per count of insulting, defaming, or threatening the monarchy. A conviction under the Computer Crime Act can add up to five years more. Critics — including international human rights organizations — have long argued the law is applied broadly to suppress political dissent. According to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, more than 290 people, many of them student activists, have faced charges under Article 112 since early 2020.
Thanathorn has spent years operating outside formal politics after being repeatedly targeted by legal action. The Constitutional Court dissolved his Future Forward Party in February 2020, ruling that a 191.2 million baht personal loan he extended to the party constituted an illegal donation. The ruling came with a 10-year political ban on Thanathorn and 15 other party executives. The party’s successor, Move Forward, won more seats than any other party in the 2023 general election but was blocked from forming a government by conservative lawmakers. Move Forward was itself dissolved by the Constitutional Court in August 2024 after a unanimous ruling found that its campaign to reform the lèse-majesté law amounted to an attempt to undermine the constitutional monarchy.
Thursday’s acquittal doesn’t restore Thanathorn’s right to hold political office — that ban remains in place — but it represents a significant legal development in a country where prosecutions under Section 112 have rarely ended in the defendant’s favor. The ruling arrives at a charged political moment: Bangkok’s gubernatorial race opened candidate registration on the same day, and the country’s progressive political movement — now operating under the People’s Party — is mounting its most serious electoral challenge in years.
Whether prosecutors appeal, and how the courts might receive that appeal, will be closely watched both inside Thailand and by the international observers who have tracked the application of the lèse-majesté law for years.
