By Thai Newsroom Reporters
ANTI-LESE MAJESTE activists today (Dec. 9) called on the Office of Attorney- General to rescind the Constitutional Court’s ruling earlier delivered against massive calls for monarchical reform.
Somyot Prueksakasemsuk and Attapol Buapat, leaders of the so-called Ratsadorn Group for Abolition of Section 112, submitted a petition at the Office of Attorney- General’s headquarters for the agency to consider taking steps to rescind the Constitutional Court’s ruling that the sustained calls for monarchical reform, specifically pertaining to the sought-after abolition to the Criminal Code Section 112, better known as the lese majeste law, were allegedly designed to ”undermine democratic rule with the monarch as head of state.”
The Office of Attorney-General’s deputy spokesman Prayut Petkhun who received the petition said the agency is yet to take it into account but would do so in due course.
Somyot confirmed that more than 237,000 people have so far signed the petition in pursuit of the abolition to the lese majeste law but such a people-endorsed plea is not going to be forwarded to parliament anytime soon.
Additional lawmakers, particularly those currently in the opposition bloc, are yet to be encouraged by the Ratsadorn Group for Abolition of Section 112 and other pro-democracy groups to help carry out future efforts in pursuit of the monarchical reform via legislative channels, according to the anti-lese majeste activists.
Attapol maintained that the Constitutional Court’s highly controversial ruling would be merely used as a legal, political tool against any opponents to those who may have been supportive of the lese majeste law, which, he said, has obviously stifled the people’s freedom of expression and violated the human rights for them to take part in peaceful gatherings and demands for an end to it.
Three Ratsadorn Group activists, namely Anon Nampa, Panupong Jadnok and Panusaya Sitthijirawattanakul, have been arrested and are currently detained on lese majeste and sedition charges following their speeches delivered last year at Thammasat University’s Rangsit campus in pursuit of the monarchical reform and abolition to the Section 112.
CAPTION:
A large but peaceful demonstration at Ratchaprasong intersection calling for the abolition of the draconian lese majeste law, better known as Criminal Code Section 112, on Oct. 31 this year. Photos: Matichon
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