Name: Tanaporn (Age 24)
Occupation: Worker (Factory)
Case: Lèse Majesté (Article 112) – Computer Crimes Act from Posting to Facebook
Date of Imprisonment: 27 May 2024
Location of Imprisonment: Thonburi Women’s Prison

“Ploy” Tanaporn, a 24-year-old former factory worker,was sentenced to imprisonment of 2 years by the Supreme Court on 27 May 2024 in a lèse majesté case under Article 112 and Article 14 (3) of the Computer Crimes Act. Tanaporn is from Uthai Thani Province and is the mother of an infant. She was prosecuted for using her personal Facebook account to express opinions by sharing a post from a page that posted an edited photo of Rama 8 and Rama 9 in 2021. 

The case arose when police arrived at Tanaporn’s house with an arrest warrant on 29 September 2021. She was 2 months pregnant at that time. She was taken for questioning at the Bang Phlat Police Station without having a lawyer present at that time. She subsequently learned that in this case, the accuser was Captain Rangsikorn Thika. She was detained at the police station for 1 night before the police took her to the Court to request she be remanded during the investigation. The Court granted bail in the amount of 100,000 baht and with the condition that she wear an electronic monitoring (EM) ankle bracelet. 

Tanaporn had to wear the EM ankle bracelet for approximately 3 months and had to wear long pants to conceal it from her boss and coworkers. She was afraid that she would be fired. This made it very difficult to live her life as her pregnancy progressed. After she was released on bail at the police investigation stage, Tanaporn looked for assistance from various agencies, such as the Lawyers’ Council. But she was indirectly refused with the explanation that there were no lawyers available for her type of case. By the time Tanaporn was able to get assistance from TLHR, her case was already being examined by the Supreme Court.  

Tanaporn used time to find information and prepare herself to enter the prison because she was afraid of the risk she faced as she awaited the Supreme Court ruling. The Appeal Court had reversed the Court of First Instance’s initial suspended sentence and sentenced her to imprisonment without suspension of punishment. Her primary concern was for her 2 children. 

At the time of her judgment, Ploy’s younger child was only 6 months old and still breastfeeding while her older child was 2 years old when they were abruptly taken from their mother. The imprisonment of her as the mother of an infant impacted her and she became unwell for a week due to her breast milk ducts becoming clogged as she could not breastfeed. She had to take painkillers until her milk dried up and the pain stopped.