A prominent activist’s mother has been indicted for sending an alleged lèse-majesté message via Facebook private chat despite an earlier police decision not to file charges.
On Friday, 22 July 2016, the military prosecutor decided to indict Patnaree Chankij, mother of the well-known anti-junta activist Sirawit Serithiwat, for breaching Article 112 of the Criminal Code, the lèse-majesté law, and the Computer Crimes Act, although the Commissioner-General of the Royal Thai Police previously decided not to press charges against her.
She will be formally charged on August 1 when she must present herself at the Bangkok Military Court at 10.30 am. Pawinee Chumsri, her lawyer, said Patranee has to prepare 500,000 baht as bail.
Patnaree was accused under Article 112 for replying to a Facebook message from Burin Intin deemed to be lèse majesté by texting ‘ja’ (Human Rights Watch translated this word as a non-committal, colloquial ‘yes’ in the Thai language) which according to the authorities shows that she allegedly accepted or agreed with the message and failed to report Burin to the authorities.
On the same day, Burin was indicted on the same charge as Patnaree despite being currently detained.
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