Letter from Prison by Arnon Nampa
Arnon Nampa (อานนท์ นำภา), a Thai lawyer, poet, father and human rights defender, is imprisoned following conviction of violation of Article 112 in Thailand.
112WATCH wishes to support this important project by Justice in Southeast Asia Lab, based in the Center for Southeast Asian Studies UW-Madison Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS). The Article 112 Project under the Justice in Southeast Asia Lab just translated and published **Letters from Prison: Volume 2** by Arnon Nampa (Nos. 1-25, written between 16 November 2023 -11 January 2024), which can be read and downloaded here: bit.ly/3T3xwXO
Arnon Nampa (อานนท์ นำภา), a Thai lawyer, poet, father and human rights defender, is imprisoned following conviction of violation of Article 112 in Thailand. At a protest on 3 August 2020, he made a call for frank, public discussion of the monarchy that transformed the struggle for democracy in Thailand. Those in power were fundamentally unnerved by his and others’ calls for democracy and so began to charge them with violation of Article 112, the measure of the Criminal Code that defines the crime and prescribes punishment for alleged lèse majesté. Arnon is facing a total of fourteen Article 112 charges for speeches and peaceful expression of opinion in 2020-2022. When the first of his cases was decided on 26 September 2023, he was sentenced to four years in prison. He requested bail while he appealed, but this was denied. In January 2024, he was sentenced to another four years in prison. He has repeatedly been denied bail while he appeals. Shortly after his first conviction, Arnon began writing letters from prison, which were then disseminated via social media by his family and supporters. The letters are a record of both the injustice of the judicial process and how one human rights defender is holding the line against this injustice. The record of his life and struggle in the letters is also an essential history of Thailand.
The Article 112 Project, part of the Justice in Southeast Asia Lab, is translating these letters from Thai into English. This is the second volume of Arnon’s prison letters; the twenty-five letters in this collection were written between 16 November 2023 and 11 January 2024. The Article 112 Project/@Justice in Southeast Asia Lab will continue translating and disseminating Arnon’s letters as long as he writes them, in volumes of twenty-five letters. See Volume 1 here:
Stay tuned for Volume 3 in the coming months!
