(Bloomberg) -- A Thai court sentenced a lawmaker from a reformist party to three years in jail under the country’s royal defamation law, adding to the legal challenges of the main opposition party that’s facing dissolution despite winning a general election a year ago. 

Chonthicha Jangrew, 31, from Move Forward Party was found guilty of defaming King Maha Vajiralongkorn in a speech she made in September 2021 during a rally to call for the release of political prisoners. The provincial court on Monday granted Chonthicha bail after it commuted her jail term to two years. The lawmaker told reporters she planned to appeal the verdict. 

The former pro-democracy activist was one of several who contested the general election last year and won a seat to the lower house of the Thai parliament. The verdict against Chonthicha followed a similar ruling against another Move Forward lawmaker in December. 

Thailand’s lese majeste law, known as Article 112 of the country’s penal code, punishes anyone who defames the king, the queen, the heir or the regent for up to 15 years in prison. The Move Forward Party ran an election campaign with vows to amend the law and introduce sweeping reforms that challenge traditional military and business elites, before sweeping the most seats in the parliament. 

Chonthicha’s sentencing highlights mounting legal troubles for Move Forward and its lawmakers, whose election win threatened to upend Thailand’s political equations. The Constitutional Court is scrutinizing a petition seeking to disband Move Forward after the same court found it guilty of breaching the charter over efforts to amend the royal defamation law.

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