Somyot Prueksakasemsuk

Somyot Prueksakasemsuk (; born 9 November 1961) is a Thai activist and magazine editor who was sentenced to eleven years of imprisonment for lèse-majesté against King Bhumibol Adulyadej in 2013. His sentence drew protest from the European Union and from numerous human rights groups, including Amnesty International, which designated him a prisoner of conscience. He was an editor of the Voice of Thaksin (Voice of the Oppressed) magazine and a prominent labour rights activist affiliated with the Democratic Alliance of Trade Unions who protested for Thai labour law reform.

First lèse majesté incident

Somyot is a member of the "red shirts", a movement supporting former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra; Thaksin was removed from power in 2006 by a coup d'état. He was not the author of the two articles. Somyot was arrested for lèse majesté on 30 April 2011, five days after launching a grassroots campaign to collect ten thousand signatures for a petition that called for reform of the lèse majesté law.

Somyot was arrested and imprisoned without bail for nearly two years. On 23 January 2013, the Criminal Court of Thailand convicted him of lèse majesté and sentenced to a total of eleven years in prison: one year for a suspended sentence for a defamation charge, and five years each for the two counts of violating Article 112, the lèse majesté law.

International reaction The verdict came at a time when Thailand's lèse majesté laws were becoming increasingly controversial domestically and internationally. Amnesty International called Somyot a "human rights defender" and designated him a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned "simply for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression". The Asian Human Rights Commission argued that the lèse majesté law itself was unconstitutional in Thailand, protesting a Constitutional Court decision to uphold it.

The court's chief judge, Thawee Prachuablarb, defended the sentence: "There have been criticisms, rather one-sided, that the court was too harsh in its judgement but the five-year prison term for each of the two counts is considered appropriate ... It is mid-way between the minimum sentence under this law, which is three years, and the maximum punishment of 15 years. The court made its ruling in accordance with the law."

Release from prison

Somyot Prueksakasemsuk finished his sentence and was released from prison on 30 April 2018. In interviews, he said that he had lost his family and his job as a result of the lèse majesté charge, and that at one point in jail, after developing gout due to wounds from his shackles, he had attempted suicide. Immediately upon his release, he vowed to go back to fighting for democracy: "Participating in political activities is a civic duty. . . . I will join with any movement that demands elections. That's surely a good thing."