BANGKOK, Oct 6 — Activists called for amnesty for people prosecuted under Thailand’s strict royal insult law on Tuesday, during a ceremony marking 50 years since a massacre of demonstrators protesting dictatorship.
A small group shouted “Amnesty 112” from a balcony at Bangkok’s Thammasat University, an AFP reporter saw, as around 300 people including politicians and survivors gathered to commemorate the October 6, 1976, killings on the campus.
Under Section 112 of Thailand’s criminal code – which was tightened after the 1976 massacre – anyone convicted of insulting, defaming or threatening the king or his family can face a prison sentence of up to 15 years per offence.
Legal observers and rights campaigners say the law is interpreted so broadly that it has become a tool to target dissent.
Nearly 300 people have been charged under the so-called lese majeste law since 2020, including many young people who took part in large-scale protests that year to demand democratic change and reform of the monarchy.
The Thammasat crackdown 50 years ago followed the return from exile of military dictator Thanom Kittikachorn, who had been ousted three years earlier.
Students had gathered to oppose his return. Police and right-wing groups stormed the campus, shooting, beating and lynching protesters.
The official death toll was 46, although survivors and witnesses believe more than 100 were killed. No state official has been held accountable.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul was represented at Tuesday’s ceremony at the university memorial by a junior minister.
“Today we pay tribute and express our condolences for the lives lost,” Minister Paradorn Prissananantakul told AFP after laying a wreath.
Asked why the government never held its own service for the victims, he did not answer directly, saying that “the most important lesson from the October incident, on the government side, is to open the floor to everyone who has different opinions, so they can express their voices”.
Thammasat survivor Wattana Chaichanasakul had earlier read out the names of those killed, a tradition observed every year.
It is to “remind ourselves that we will never forget our friends because if we do, it means we kill them again”, she told the audience.
Current student Thanaporn Singlee, 21, said it was important to mark the anniversary because “Thammasat was a place where people died because of the government”. — AFP
Date: 6 October, 2026 7:30 pm
Source: Malay Mail
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