Prosecutors file lèse majesté charges against Wolf Bride theatre activists

Prosecutors have decided to file lèse majesté charges against two activists involved in the political play "The Wolf Bride". 
 
Phawinee Chumsri, a lawyer representing Patiwat S. and Pornthip M., two theatre activists accused of lèse majesté for taking part in a political stage play called ‘The Wolf Bride’, told Prachatai that the public prosecutor on Friday filed lèse majesté charges against the two suspects after almost three months of detention.
 
The deposition and preliminary hearing is scheduled on 29 December.
 
Patiwat is accused of starring in a stage play “The Wolf Bride” centred around a fictional monarch in the role of a Brahmin advisor, while Pornthip was accused of being involved with the play.
 
The play was performed in October 2013 at Thammasat University, Bangkok, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 14 October popular uprising. The play was organized by former members of the now-defunct Prakai Fai Karn Lakorn.
 
Patiwat and Pornthip were arrested on 14 and 15 August respectively and have remained in custody since.
 
The criminal court repeatedly rejected their bail requests.
 
Patiwat was in his fifth year at the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Khon Kaen University. He is also the Secretary-General of the Student Federation of the North East. 
 
Pornthip is a graduate from Faculty of Political Science, Ramkhamhaeng University. She co-founded Prakai Fai Karn Lakorn in 2010. The group was aimed at making performance arts more accessible to the grassroots. Most of their plays concerned social issues, inequality, and politics. The group was dissolved in 2012 due to differences among group members.   
 
In early June, the junta’s National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) summoned and detained about ten current and former Prakai Fai members and interrogated them about the play. 
 

 

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