This article was originally published on Prachatai.
Two netizens have been sued for defamation by Deputy PM Thammanat Prompao after they commented on Facebook about a censure debate in which a People’s Party MP raised concerns about a scam network allegedly linked to Thai politicians. Thammanat has filed 270 defamation cases since October 2025 related to online comments linked to a scam network.
Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) reported that two netizens, Tharathorn from Saraburi and Ekarak from Chachoengsao, face defamation lawsuits for their online comments targeting the Deputy PM and Agriculture Minister Thammanat.
Both of them went to report at Phayao Police Station on Thursday (15 January). Meanwhile, Tharathon has received a summons from November 2025. He requested the case to be transferred to Saraburi, but his request was rejected. He had to travel over 600 kilometres to Phayao Police Station.
Their comments stemmed from MP Rangsiman Rome’s speech in parliament in September 2025 about a scam network allegedly linked to Thai politicians, including Thammanat himself.
During the censure debate, MP Rangsiman questioned the Deputy PM’s relationship with Ben Smith, also known as Benjamin Mauerberger, who is allegedly involved in scam network operations in Cambodia. The scrutiny followed the release of a photo showing Thammanat together with former PM Thaksin Shinawatra and Mauerberger, which was published by prominent investigative journalist Tom Wright.
Rangsiman himself was recently sued for defamation by Benjamin Mauerberger on 12 January.
Thammanat told the media on 2 October that he had initiated legal proceedings against those involved in the censure debate on this issue and against 270 netizens who commented about it.
Apart from Tharathorn and Ekarat, another citizen, Suphaphorn Phosri, revealed that she had received a summons in a case filed by Thammanat at Phayao Police Station. The charge stems from her Facebook post about Thammanat’s qualifications, which have been questioned by the general public. In her post, she is alleged to have said that instead of clarifying, Thammanat chose to threaten those who questioned him.
According to TLHR, since 2019, Thammanat, then an MP candidate for the Palang Pracharath Party in Phayao Province, has filed an array of charges against Phayao residents, university students who posted Facebook criticisms of Party MPs during the election campaign, or even against MPs from a rival political party, including Chaithawat Thulathon of the Move Forward Party.
Thammanat has been a controversial political figure since he served time in prison in connection with a drug trafficking conviction in Australia in 1994. Despite multiple scandals, his political rise has secured him influential positions. Prior to his current role, Thammanat served as Agriculture Minister under former PMs Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha and Srettha Thavisin.
Regarding the drug trafficking case, Thammanat said during a censure debate in 2020 that the Australian Court convicted him by mistake, as the heroin in fact ‘was flour,’ an excuse which has gone viral on Thailand’s social media platforms.
The Constitutional Court was asked to rule whether Thammanat was disqualified from holding a ministerial post because of his drug conviction in Australia. The Court ruled that as his conviction was by an Australian court not a Thai court, he was not disqualified.