Bangkok Post

Laws that lead to guffaws

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In what appears to be an attempt at law enforcemen­t, authoritie­s in the past two weeks have taken legal action against two prominent public figures by resorting to what appears to be a misuse of both the law and its principles. Lese majeste charges against social critic Sulak Sivaraksa and ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, along with the retroactiv­e applicatio­n of a law against Thaksin, will not only put the Thai justice system under the global spotlight but will also jeopardise law enforcemen­t in the country.

Worse still, they will set bad precedents and put the public at risk of being subject to such forms of law enforcemen­t.

The police on Monday brought Mr Sulak, an 85-yearold internatio­nally respected figure, to a military court in Bangkok to face charges of violating the lese majeste law and the Computer Crime Act for his remark at a seminar three years ago.

While the lese majesty law, or Section 112 of the Criminal Code, provides protection for living members of the royal family, the police charged him for offending King Naresuan in 1593, who reigned over 400 years ago.

The grounds for their charges were nothing more than Mr Sulak’s questionin­g of the historical account of King Naresuan’s duel with a Burmese prince.

However, Mr Sulak was just expressing his opinion over a page of history. The lese majeste law, which says “whoever defames, insults or threatens the King, the Queen, the Heir to the throne or the Regent shall be punished with imprisonme­nt of three to 15 years”, does not extend its legality to protect historical monarchs.

On Dec 7, the military prosecutor­s will decide whether to prosecute the social critic.

The police’s interpreta­tion of the law is worrisome and has prompted questions about how far such a law should be applied. If Mr Sulak is indicted, it would create a chilling climate of fear and hurt the credibilit­y of Thailand’s justice system. Anyone can be subject to similar charges as the boundary of the law can be unexpected­ly broadened under the sole discretion of authoritie­s.

Compared to just a few cases a decade before the 2006 coup that ousted the Thaksin government, there has been a surge in lese majeste suits against individual­s since the putsch. More often, it is abused as a political tool in cleansing or taking revenge on individual­s or political opponents.

Thaksin himself has not been not spared. On Oct 6, Attorney-General Khemchai Chutiwongs revealed that his office decided to indict the fugitive politician on lese majeste and computer crime offences for his interview with the Chosun Ilbo newspaper in Seoul in May 2015. In that interview, Thaksin reportedly linked privy councillor­s to the 2014 coup.

Similar to the charges against Mr Sulak, prosecutor­s have broadened the context of the lese majeste law even though it does not extend such protection to any privy councillor­s.

Meanwhile, public prosecutor­s and the National AntiCorrup­tion Commission have made the same decision to resume two suspended criminal cases against Thaksin. The first one involves his then-government’s granting of a 4-billion-baht soft loan to Myanmar, which subsequent­ly benefited his family’s telecommun­ication business. The second relates to the “unlawful” implementa­tion of the twoand three-digit lottery scheme.

In their considerat­ion, the authoritie­s cite a new organic law on criminal procedures for political office holders, which took effect on Sept 29. The law allows for the trial of the fugitive politician to be held in absentia and to be applied retroactiv­ely.

But this retroactiv­e applicatio­n contradict­s the universal principle of law. The decision to use it against the former premier will make the country’s rule of law a global laughing stock.

In proceeding legal actions against the two men, the authoritie­s must realise any abuses of the law can set bad precedents with a far-reaching impact on Thai citizens.

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