A lèse majesté charge was filed with the Crime Suppression Division police against unidentified internet users who posted messages on the Prachatai web-board.

On Oct 11, an anti-coup activist and frequent web-board poster Prajin Thanangkorn told Prachatai that the Crime Suppression Division had issued a witness warrant for him to testify on the alleged offence. The warrant identified the alleged offenders as ‘unidentified'.

The warrant stated the appointment date was on Oct 4, but it was sent by mail and did not reach him in time. However, he came to know about it on Oct 4 when CSD investigator Lieut Col Apichon Charoenpon called asking if he would come to testify. Prajin said he expected to go to see the police next week.

Prajin said Lt Col Apichon told him that the web-board topic in question was the topic posted on Nov 21, 2006. Prajin searched for a possible topic and found that it was about ‘extra-constitutional influential figure(s)'.

The CSD did not specifically point out which topic and comments were offensive and who posted them. However, Lt Col Apichon told Prajin that if the offensive comments belonged to him, a panel would consider whether it was a lèse majesté case under Article 112 of the Criminal Code.

Prajin said he had met the complainant Chanapat Na Nakorn only once in an anti-coup activity at Sanam Luang on Nov 1, 2006.

He said the accusation of lèse majesté was frightening, but it was also challenging because he thought many Thai people also felt uncomfortable with the law. So there should be someone to take up the fight for once, he said.

"The world has changed and no such law should remain. Even the Lord Buddha said to his disciples that they could criticize him on his flaws. These days we should be able to discuss this. If something is offensive, the defamation law can always be used. Not a total ban on criticism,' Prajin said, adding that he would try to fight the case for the benefit of the Thai people in the future, despite the risk.

Prajin is an active member of internet discussion forums including Prachatai, http://www.sameskybooks.org/, and http://www.nocoup.org/, and always posts comments under his real name with email address and mobile phone number publicly available.

Article 112 of the Criminal Code is different from the provisions on defamation in that anyone can press lèse majesté charges against anyone else with more severe terms of punishment.