Five Thai demonstrators will receive a verdict on Wednesday, June 28, as to whether they will be executed for standing in the way of the queen’s motorcade during a pro-democracy march in 2020.
The five defendants are charged with violating Article 110 of the Criminal Code, an offense that if judged egregious could carry a death sentence.
The Thai law in question part prohibits an ‘act to cause harm to the liberty of the queen, the heir apparent and the regent.’ There is uncertainty whether that part of the law has been used in any previous case.
The incident followed an anti-government rally in Bangkok on October 14, 2020, the anniversary of a popular uprising in 1973 that led to the fall of a decade-long military dictatorship.
As hundreds of protesters marched to Government House, where the prime minister’s offices are, a royal motorcade with a limousine carrying Queen Suthida, wife of King Maha Vajiralongkorn, and his son, Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti, then 15, appeared on the same route.
It was gathered that the students from the protest didn’t show any clearly threatening behavior toward the queen’s car, though several people in the crowd hold up the pro-democracy movement’s three-finger salute.
Student activist Bunkueanun Paothong, widely known by his nickname Francis, is one of the defendants, and holds the highest profile because of his eagerness to speak about the case.
The indictment accuses Francis, 23, and his fellow defendants of breaking away from the march to urge fellow protesters to block the motorcade. It also alleges they scuffled with police officers who were securing the car’s path.
In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Francis denied knowing a royal motorcade would be in the vicinity and said he urged people to move away from the queen’s car once he saw it.
He said the charge alleges he conspired with the four others to harm the queen’s liberty, ‘but if one had seen the evidence, if one had been there on that day, they would realize that what I did there was nothing short of trying to avoid that very same outcome. I have to say it again now: I did not intend to harm her.’
Francis surrendered to police two days later and was charged under Article 110. The minimum punishment for a conviction is 16 years imprisonment, but the death penalty or life imprisonment is possible if it is proven that a defendant caused the queen’s life to be in danger.
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