<p>A 38-year-old indigenous Karen man from Mae Hong Son has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for royal defamation and sedition over 4 Facebook posts and denied bail.</p>

<p>Two protesters arrested on Thursday (9 March) and charged with royal defamation and contempt of court for singing and speaking at a protest in July 2022 have been denied bail.&nbsp;</p>

<p>A 26-year-old man has been found guilty and sentenced to 2 years in prison on a royal defamation charge for selling a rubber duck calendar, after the Taling Chan Criminal Court ruled that the depiction of the rubber duck was a mockery of the King.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The Criminal Court has refused to repeal an order blocking an online petition for the repeal of the royal defamation law, claiming that the website contains a phrase that is a distortion of fact.</p>

<p>A 14-year-old girl became the youngest person to be charged with royal defamation after she received a police summons following a complaint filed against her by a royalist activist.</p>

<p>ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) urges the Thai government to listen to the demands of two hunger striking activists and amend the&nbsp;lèse-majesté, or royal defamation, law.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Activists Tantawan Tuatulanon and Orawan Phuphong, who are undergoing a hunger strike to demand the release of political prisoners and judicial reform, will continue their hunger strike until every political prisoner is released, said their lawyer during a press conference on Saturday (4 February).</p>

<p>A 29-year-old activist in Chiang Rai has been sentenced to 28 years in prison on royal defamation charges resulting from a number of Facebook posts about the monarchy. The Chiang Rai Provincial Court found him guilty on 14 counts.</p>

<p>A food delivery rider accused on a royal defamation charge of setting fire to a portrait of King Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida and detained pending appeal has gone on a hunger strike to protest his own detention.</p>

<p>To show support for the demands made by two activists now on a dry hunger strike in prison, activists in several provinces have staged protests to demand the release of all political prisoners and reform of the judicial system.</p>

<p>Thai&nbsp;authorities should immediately drop the charges and release two democracy activists detained for criticizing the monarchy, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/01/20/thailand-free-detained-critics-monarchy">Human Rights Watch</a> said on Friday (20 January).</p>