A prominent American academic has been detained in Thailand after being charged with insulting the monarchy, a rare case in which a foreign national has fallen foul of the country’s strict lese-majesty law.
Paul Chambers, who specialises in civil-military relations and democratisation in south-east Asia, was denied bail on Tuesday and is being held at Phitsanulok provincial prison in northern Thailand, his lawyers said.
He has been charged under section 112 of the Thai criminal code, which contains the country’s lese-majesty law, and section 14 of the Computer Crimes Act.
The charges relate to a webinar invitation titled “Thailand’s 2024 Military and Police Reshuffles: What Do They Mean?”. It was published in October 2024, on the website of the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, a research centre based in Singapore.
“[Chambers] denied all charges. He neither wrote nor published the blurb on the website,” said Akarachai Chaimaneekarakate, of Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, which represents Chambers. Chambers plans to appeal against the court’s decision to deny bail, Akarachai added.
Thailand has one of the world’s most strict lese-majesty laws, under which criticism of the royal family can lead to 15 years in jail on a single charge.
If a person faces multiple cases, they can be sentenced to decades in prison: in January 2024 a man was sentenced to 50 years over his comments about the royal family.
At least 277 people have been charged under the law since authorities cracked down on youth-led mass protests that began in July 2020. People have been prosecuted for political speeches, wearing clothes deemed to be impersonating the royals, or for being involved in the sale of satirical cartoons.
It is rare for a foreign national to be charged under the lese-majesty law, however.
Chambers, who is a well-known academic, is a lecturer at Naresuan University in northern Thailand, and a visiting fellow at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute.
According to a summary shared by Chambers’ lawyers, an official from the police inquiry said the information on the blurb was false, “as the king did not exercise powers to restructure the military or appoint high-ranking national security officials. To say otherwise would be an insult to the king and would tarnish the king’s reputation and dignity”.
Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher on Thailand in Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, said lese-majesty prosecutions were “a serious blot” on Thailand’s human rights record.
“The abusive use of the royal insult law in Thailand has reached a new height of absurdity when Paul Chambers, a prominent Thai studies scholar, is charged with lese-majesty and cybercrime offences for commenting about the monarchy and the military. Academic freedom and free speech in Thailand will suffer devastating blows if this baseless prosecution proceeds,” Sunai said.
