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BANGKOK: A Thai billionaire and opposition figure was charged on Tuesday (March 30) with defaming the monarchy after questioning the government’s reliance on COVID-19 vaccines made by a company linked to the royal family.
Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, founder of the now-disbanded Future Forward Party, posted a video on Facebook in January asking if Thailand was relying too heavily on Siam Bioscience for its vaccination campaign.
Siam Bioscience is owned by the Crown Property Bureau, which manages the multi-million dollar fortune of the royal family.
A Bangkok criminal court charged Thanathorn with lese majesty and a computer crime for the video on Tuesday, but was defiant.
“It has had a positive result: encouraging the government to re-evaluate vaccine policy to handle the COVID-19 situation. There is nothing to worry about,” he said outside of court.
“(The police) did not mention any quotes or anything that was specifically said. Overall, it was a charge for speaking through Facebook.”
Those convicted under Thailand’s strict royal defamation laws can face up to 15 years in jail per charge.
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Thailand ordered 61 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Siam Bioscience plans to manufacture 200 million doses of that vaccine for the kingdom and the region as a whole each year.
Thanathorn’s case will return to court on May 7.
Before it disbanded, his Future Forward Party was the third-largest in Thailand, attracting millions of followers who were drawn to his anti-establishment platform during the 2019 elections.
But the party was brought down by swift legal action, which saw its top executives, including Thanathorn, excluded from politics and the party dissolved.
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More than 70 people are currently facing royal defamation charges in Thailand, including prominent student leaders who started a youth-led pro-democracy movement last July.
Its rallies last year drew tens of thousands at its peak, but the movement has slowed in recent months due to a new wave of coronavirus cases.
The protests have called for the resignation of the government of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha and a rewriting of the constitution written by the military.
But the most controversial demands have been reforms to the monarchy, including the abolition of royal defamation laws.
