Thailand drops royal insult case against American academic

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo — a police officer is seen in Bangkok, Thailand. (Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

BANGKOK  -  A royal insult prosecution against an American scholar in Thailand that raised concerns in the U.S. government has been dropped, his lawyer said on Thursday, as authorities confirmed the academic had left the country.  

Paul Chambers, 58, a political science lecturer, had been in legal limbo since his arrest last month on a lese-majeste charge, which led to the loss of his job, his work visa and the seizure of his passport.

Thailand has one of the world's harshest lese-majeste laws, setting jail terms of up to 15 years for anyone convicted of defaming, insulting or threatening King Maha Vajiralongkorn and his close family.

The prosecutor earlier this month dropped the case against Chambers but police appealed that decision. The attorney-general overruled the appeal earlier this week, said Chambers' lawyer, Wannaphat Jenroumjit.

"The case is now concluded," she said, adding the legal team was appealing the revocation of his work visa.

The U.S. State Department had expressed alarm at the arrest of Chambers, saying the case "reinforces our longstanding concerns about the use of lese-majeste laws in Thailand". 

The charges against him, which came after a complaint by the royalist army, had stemmed from a blurb for an online academic seminar at which he was a speaker, according to his lawyers. The blurb was posted last year on the website of a research institute based outside of Thailand.

Chambers could not be contacted for comment on Thursday. 

Thailand's constitution enshrines the king in a position of "revered worship" and royalists regard the palace as sacrosanct. 

A party that won the 2023 election was dissolved last year over its campaign to amend the lese-majeste law, under which more than 280 people have been charged since 2020, according to the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights legal aid group, which also represented Chambers. 

Thai immigration police confirmed Chambers' passport had been returned to him and that he had left the country earlier on Thursday. 

"The case is closed as the attorney-general decided to drop it," Police Major General Sarawut Khonyai, a commander of immigration police in northern Thailand, told Reuters.

(Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat and Panu Wongcha-um; Editing by Martin Petty)