A court in the capital Bangkok sentenced, Monday February 5, the main opponent of power, Pita Limjaroenrat, and seven other figures of the pro-democracy movement, to four months in prison, for a demonstration organized in 2019 and which had been deemed illegal . The prison sentence is suspended for two years, the judges wrote in a press release.
“The court ruled that the demonstration was organized without authorization, that it had blocked public space and that it was held less than 150 meters away” of a royal residence, detailed to Agence France-Presse the lawyer for the accused, Krisadang Nootjaras. The protest movement, organized in December 2019 in the heart of Bangkok, brought together thousands of people demanding the departure of the generals in power since the 2014 coup.
Move Forward threatened with dissolution
Pita Limjaroenrat, winner of the 2023 legislative elections with the progressive party Move Forward, but without succeeding in becoming prime minister, is among the eight accused alongside other leaders of the reformist camp, politicians or activists.
The billionaire Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, the former secretary general of the New Future Party, Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, banned for ten years from political life by court decision in 2020, and the former MP Pannika Wanich, excluded for life, are also targeted by this verdict, just like activist Parit Chiwarak, known in Thailand as “Penguin”.
The Move Forward party is facing dissolution after Thai courts ruled in January that its flagship proposal to relax the lèse majesté law was unconstitutional.