Thai political prisoner Netiporn Sanesangkhom, 28, dies on Tuesday, when on hunger strike he reaches day 110. He was arrested in January and without trial. He was accused of insulting the monarchy for his participation in a protest in 2020, as part of the anti-monarchy movement led by the youth movements in Southeast Asia.
Thai Netiporn Sanesangkhom was born in the family of a judge and had a sister lawyer, as you can read on Wikipedia in Basque. In his youth he began to fight for social and political issues. For example, in favour of the right of Thai students to choose hairstyle and the LGBT community of the country. In addition to her work as an activist, she did financial studies and worked as an English tutor. However, the struggle for democratic reform and freedom was the one that most influenced his life and joined the dedicated Thaluwang group.
Thai King Maha Vajirnearkorn and his close family are protected by the most demanding laws in the world, which gives the State the power to punish dissent, including criticism of the monarchy. In the popular encyclopedia you can read that Sanesangkok organized popular surveys and demonstrations against the king's privileges, among others. He was therefore reported and imprisoned on several occasions. In 2022 he held a hunger strike to alarm the justice system and the conditions of political prisoners.
He was last arrested on 26 January 2024. When he was arrested, Sanesangkok once again launched a hunger strike to denounce the detentions without trial suffered by activists against the monarchy, according to Al Jazeera. He died of a cardiac arrest on 14 May 2024.
Since protests against the monarchy began in 2020, 270 Thai activists have been convicted of defamation against the monarchy. In addition, over 2,000 people have been charged with other charges for their participation in anti-government protests.
The Thai justice system allows monarchy critics to remain in prison for months without trial, and if punishable by defamation with the monarchy, it imposes prison sentences of over a decade.
History of student struggle against monarchy
Although Sanesangkok’s hunger strike has achieved some international leaders, the history of Thailand’s slave movement Red.Mediak, which he recalled, is not well known.
The movement against the monarchy guided by students reached its peak in the 1970s. In the midst of the Cold War and heated by anti-communist propaganda, the government used harsh repression to destroy that movement.
.jpg)
The government’s attack came to an end in the 1976 Thammasat massacre. The Thai police, along with extreme right-wing paramilitaries, killed over 100 students who protested at Thammasat University, according to various sources. More information about this event in the ARGIA Efemérides Channel.