US scholar in Thailand jailed pending trial on charges of insulting the monarchy
He reported himself to the police Tuesday to formally acknowledge the charges and then was taken to Phitsanulok Provincial Court for a pretrial detention hearing, according to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, a legal advocacy group.
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It said the court approved the police request for pretrial detention and denied Chambers' initial application for release on bail, as well as a second later request. The legal aid group said another request to allow bail would be filed to an appeals court on Wednesday. No trial date has been set.
The officer who answered the phone at the police station handling the case said he could not comment, and referred the matter to his chief, who did not answer a call to his phone.
It is not unusual for Thai courts to deny bail in cases involving the offense of insulting the monarchy, which is also called lese majeste, and popularly known as '112' after its article number in the criminal code.
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The U.S.-based academic freedom project Scholars at Risk said in a statement that Chambers in late 2024 made comments in a webinar about a restructuring of the military believed to be the cause of the complaint made against him by the 3rd Army Area, covering Thailand's northern region.
'State authorities should refrain from criminal investigations and other coercive legal action intended to restrict or retaliate against such conduct,' said the statement.
The lese majeste law calls for three to 15 years imprisonment for anyone who defames, insults or threatens the king, the queen, the heir apparent or the regent. Critics say it is among the harshest such laws anywhere and has been used to punish critics of the government and institutions such as the military.
The monarchy has long been considered a pillar of Thai society and criticism of it used to be strictly taboo. Conservative Thais, especially in the military and courts, still consider it untouchable.
However, public debate on the topic has in the past decade grown louder, particularly among young people, and student-led pro-democracy protests starting in 2020, began openly criticizing the institution. That led to vigorous prosecutions under the previously little-used law.
Thai Lawyers for Human Rights has said that since early 2020, more than 270 people — many of them student activists — have been charged with violating the lese majeste law.
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