After 51 days of confinement at the Baan Pranee remand home in Nakhon Pathom province on a charge of lèse majesté, Thailand’s Central Juvenile and Family Court granted the release of 15-year-old “Yok” yesterday (Thursday).
The court denied the police request to keep the woman in custody and ordered her release, citing the police’s argument that they were awaiting confirmation on whether to press charges as an internal matter that did not support ongoing detention.
Yok is the youngest Thai national to ever be detained on a lèse majesté allegation; she attends a prominent school in Bangkok. She was detained when she was 14 years old as a result of a complaint made against her by Anon Klinkaew, a member of a royalist group, about the spray-painting of an anarchist sign and a statement critical of the lèse majesté statute on the Grand Palace wall.
Yok told the media after being released yesterday that she had wasted 51 days in the detention facility and questioned whether she deserved to be imprisoned for such a long period of time, which is against human rights principles and affects her physically and mentally.
Yok’s incarceration was the focus of an online campaign and demonstrations by anti-establishment and human rights organizations calling for her release. Nine “Talugas” protestors, including two previous hunger strikers, Tantawan Tuatulanon and Orawan Phuphong, were detained last week after they ransacked the Samran Rat police station after Yok was charged with another offense—damaging an ancient site.
