Thailand’s Ministry of Justice is now chasing 31 lèse majesté suspects who are currently living overseas in an attempt to extradite the suspects from the host countries and have them prosecuted in Thailand.   

Gen Paiboon Kumchaya, the Minister of Justice, said on Saturday that a committee which was established to monitor those suspected of national security offences who are living overseas, has had arrest warrants issued for 30 lèse majesté suspects in self-imposed exile. An arrest warrant for the 31st suspect is about to be issued.

The Ministry will coordinate with the Ministry of Foreign Affair to extradite the suspects, Paiboon added.

Of the 31, Manoon Chaichana, aka Anek San Fran, a red-shirt anti-monarchist businessman living in San Francisco, who is allegedly connected to the Criminal Court explosive attack and a terrorist plot to bomb 100 venues countrywide, will be especially monitored, mentioned the Justice Minister.

It should be noted that content defaming the Thai monarchy, which violates Article 112 of the Criminal Code or the lèse majesté law, is strongly viewed by the junta and previous governments as a threat to national security.

According to Naewna Online News, some of the suspects on the list are:

Ekapop L., aka Tang Achiwa, a lèse majesté suspect who was accused of defaming the monarchy when he spoke at a red-shirt protest at gathering at Rajamangala Stadium in Eastern Bangkok in late 2013. The police issued an arrest warrant against him in early 2014. He reportedly obtained refugee status from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and is now living in New Zealand.  

Chatwadee Amornpat, aka Rose, 34, a lèse majesté suspect who is a hairdresser living in London. She has posted more than ten video clips criticizing and defaming the Thai monarchy on her Facebook page. She was on the list of people summoned by the junta in June 2014. Naewna News Online reported that she is now believed to be living in the US.

Wuthipong Kachathamkun, aka Kotee, a prominent anti-establishment red shirt leader who is accused of defaming the monarchy when he talked to a foreign media outlet about the ultra-royalist anti-election People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) protest in April 2014. He is also charged under Article 14 of the Computer Crime Code since the talk was publicised on YouTube.   

Saran Chuichai, aka Aum Neko, an anti-junta and LGBT activist who is accused of offences under Article 112 for mentioning the role of the monarchy in Thai politics during an interview for 13 Siam Thai Channel in September 2013. She is now residing in France.  

Jarupong Ruangsuwan, a former Interior Minister from the Pheu Thai Party, who fled the country after the 2014 coup d’état. He is one of the founders of Free Thais for Human Rights and Democracy (FTHD), a political organisation in exile which aims at opposing the junta government and calls for the restoration of democracy and human rights principles. He was on the list of those summoned by the junta.

Jakrapob Penkair, a former minister under the Thaksin government and a red-shirt leader, fled Thailand after the Abhisit government's first crackdown on the red-shirt movement in April 2009 and has since been in exile. He was accused of offending the monarchy while making a speech at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand in August 2007 about the patronage culture in Thailand.

Nahathai T., a policewoman lecturing at the Social Science Faculty of the Royal Police Cadet Academy who was accused of posting lèse majesté contents on Facebook under the pseudonym account nameDoungchampa Spencer Isenberg’.

It is unclear how successful these efforts will be.  Extradition treaties normally do not cover political crimes, acts which are not criminal offences in the country of exile (very few countries have lèse majesté laws) and crimes for which the punishment in the country demanding extradition is significantly more severe than in the country of exile.