New York, June 2025 — The Human Rights Institute at Columbia Law School, in partnership with the Clooney Foundation for Justice’s TrialWatch initiative, has released a new Fairness Report evaluating the trial of Thai human rights defender Katanyu “Pan” Muenkhamruang. The report concludes that Pan’s conviction under sedition and cybercrime laws violated her right to a fair trial as well as her rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, earning the proceedings a grade of “D.” Read the full report here.

Pan, 27, a student at the time of the events at issue in her case, was convicted in November 2023 and sentenced to two years in prison for two Facebook posts promoting peaceful protests in August 2021. Despite significant evidentiary weaknesses exposed during trial, the Bangkok Criminal Court held her responsible for the posts on the theory that—though she did not publish them herself—she “must be aware of the messages on Facebook…”  Her conviction is currently under appeal.

TrialWatch Expert Andrew Khoo, a constitutional and human rights lawyer based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, found that Pan’s prosecution and trial were marred by serious violations of international fair trial standards. These included: breaches of the presumption of innocence; the right to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent, and impartial tribunal; and violation of the principle of legality due to vague and overbroad laws. The court also failed to issue a reasoned judgment.

“Pan’s case reflects the weaponization of broad and vaguely worded laws to suppress peaceful dissent,” said Andrew Khoo. “Despite the fact that the prosecution could not produce specific evidence that showed beyond a reasonable doubt that she had authored the posts in question, or was the person in control of the website, the trial court was content to go along with those assumptions.  The court also on its own accord referred to some prior incident allegedly involving her.  This shows that the court was not concerned about her rights to a fair and impartial trial, and was satisfied simply to have inferred her guilt.”

Pan’s case is part of a broader pattern in Thailand: the use of criminal laws—including sedition, lèse-majesté, and the Computer-Related Crimes Act—to target democracy defenders, journalists, and other dissenting voices. According to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, at least 156 individuals have been charged with sedition since July 2020, and more than 1,400 have been prosecuted under emergency laws for protest-related activity. These practices have drawn strong concern from United Nations human rights experts regarding Thailand’s compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

At Pan’s trial, prosecution witnesses admitted under cross-examination that attempts to identify the Facebook page’s administrators—including phishing efforts—did not point to Pan. One witness testified that investigators “did not find anything that points to the defendant being an administrator” of the page. The prosecution also relied on images that allegedly showed Pan Livestreaming at the protest—evidence that was inconclusive and insufficient to prove authorship of the posts.

“Pan’s conviction should be reversed, and the laws used to target her should be brought into line with international standards,” concluded Mr. Khoo.

For more information about HRI TrialWatch Project, please visit https://hri.law.columbia.edu/our-work/equality-and-justice/trialwatch-project.

For more on CFJ’s global work, visit https://cfj.org/trialwatch.

The views expressed in this report are those of the Human Rights Institute and do not necessarily reflect the views of Columbia Law School or Columbia University.

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The Human Rights Institute advances international human rights through education, advocacy, fact-finding, research, scholarship, and critical reflection. We work in partnership with advocates, communities, and organizations pushing for social change to develop and strengthen the human rights legal framework and mechanisms, promote justice and accountability for human rights violations, and build and amplify collective power.