Tantawan Tuatulanon

Tantawan Tuatulanon is a student activist facing up to 15 years in prison for violating Thailand’s lèse majesté law.

Prior to her arrest, Tuatulanon was studying abroad in Singapore. She returned to Thailand shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic began and became active with several pro-democracy groups, including WeVolunteer, Draconis Revolution, and Thaluwang.

On February 26, 2022, Tuatulanon was arrested for conducting a poll on whether the country’s lèse-majesté laws should be repealed.  She was briefly detained and fined.

A week later Tuatulanon was arrested while livestreaming on a royal motorcade route.  The audio of her livestream captures her questioning the way that police had cleared an encampment of farmers who were staging a months-long protest on the government’s inaction on agricultural debt.  On the livestream, Tuatulanon made criticisms of the monarchy and the government’s treatment of the farmers. She was subsequently arrested, and the next day was charged under the lèse-majesté laws, on the grounds that her comments could incite someone to hate the King. She was granted bail on certain conditions, including that she refrained from using social media to incite others to protest or to join in any political protests.

On April 20, 2022, Tuatulanon’s bail was revoked on grounds that she violated her bail conditions. The following week she began a hunger strike to protest her pre-trail detention. Attempts to re-instate her bail were rejected until May 27, when she was granted conditional release for 30 days. However, the conditions resembled house arrest. She was not permitted to leave her residence unless by court order and was required to wear an ankle bracelet that monitored her location.

On January 16, 2023, Tuatulanon appeared in court to appeal her bail conditions, to demand the release on bail of other political activists, and call for the adoption of judicial and legal reforms, including revocation of laws on sedition and lese-majeste. Tuatulanon was detained as a result.  Two days later she began another hunger strike. On January 20, 2023, Tuatulanon collapsed, and was transferred to the Thammasat University Hospital.  Her condition was described as “very weak” by her lawyer, as Tuatulanon was unable to move without support, burdened by severe abdominal pain and swollen lymph nodes, and was at risk of cardiac arrest due to malnutrition and lack of potassium.  On February 24, 2023, Tuatulanon was permitted to check herself out of the hospital to continue peaceful protests in front of the Supreme Court.  However, the following week she was returned to the hospital because of her worsened health condition caused by the hunger strike.  After announcing an end to her hunger strike on March 11, 2023, Tuatulanon was discharged several weeks later.

Following her hospital discharge, Tuatulanon has been released pending trial.  Her trial began in August 2023 and as of November 2023, the proceedings are ongoing. If convicted, she faces up to fifteen years in prison.

In April 2023, Freedom Now and the international law firm Dechert LLP filed a petition to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on Tuatulanon’s behalf. In October 2023, the Working Group issued an opinion finding Thailand to be in violation of international law.