Woman Given 2 Years in Prison for Donning Pink Dress in ‘Insult’ to Thai Queen

The death of Queen Elizabeth II has sparked an outpouring of grief, but also renewed scrutiny of the royal family’s role in British society and its colonial legacy, with two people arrested over the weekend in the U.K. for protesting the monarchy. 

But in Thailand, there’s an even lower tolerance for criticism of its royal institution, and on Tuesday a woman was sentenced to two years in prison for donning a pink dress—an act a court has ruled an attempt to mimic the country’s queen. 

Jatuporn "New" Saeoueng, a 25-year-old Thai political activist, was sentenced for what a Thai court judged to be behaviour intentionally mocking Queen Suthida during a street protest in Bangkok in October 2020, according to her lawyer Krisadang Nutcharat. 

She was photographed walking down a red carpet wearing a traditional pink silk dress and shaded under an umbrella held by an attendant. Sat on the ground at her feet were protestors, imitating the reverence shown to royalty in Thailand. 

"Jatuporn has denied the charges all along and said she puts on traditional Thai dress normally," Nutcharat said. "But the court sees it as mockery and defamatory towards the monarchy.”

Jatuporn, a transgender woman, will serve her sentence in a women's prison, Krisadang added. Rulings in Thai courts are not generally publicised.

Thailand holds some of the world’s strictest lese majeste laws, with criticism of members of the country’s monarchy strictly forbidden under Article 112 and punishable by up to 15 years in prison. 

In 2020 and 2021, massive student-led, anti-government and pro-democracy demonstrations swept Bangkok. Protestors initially targeted Prayut Chan-o-cha, a former military general who led a 2014 coup d’etat installing him as the country’s leader, before transitioning to become Thailand’s civilian prime minister in 2019. 

But in unprecedented scenes, King Maha Vajiralongkorn, a more divisive figure among Thais than his beloved late-father, became a target of criticism as part of wider calls for reform of Thailand’s royal institution and constitution.

In October 2020, a “severe” state of emergency was declared as protestors confronted Queen Suthida’s motorcade as she drove through Bangkok. Some have suggested the route taken by the motorcade was chosen to provoke the crowds. 

By the end of 2021, the arrest of major protest figures had severely weakened Thailand’s pro-democracy movement. According to the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, Jatuporn is one of at least 210 activists who have been charged under Article 112 over the past two years.

Also among those charged since 2020 are at least eight minors.

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