Arnon Nampa

In his presidential year, he presented the 6 October 1976 massacre content on a school board and started 'Sports Event: Women's School—Roi Et School'.

He also won first place in the northeastern region for the law questionnaire student competition in that year.

Chamlong Daoruang, Roi Et Wittayalai alumni and Free Thai Movement member, was his influencer in his early years.

Arnon Nampa (อานนท์ นำภา; also spelled Anon Numpa; born August 18, 1984) is a Thai human rights lawyer and activist.

He has openly criticized the monarchy of Thailand, which is controversial in the country.

He was initially regarded as a prominent human rights defender during his tenure as a human rights lawyer and later accumulated multiple criminal charges due to his active involvement in pro-democracy activism.

Arnon Nampa was born on August 18, 1984, in Thung Khao Luang, former Thawat Buri to a family background rich in agriculture in Roi Et Province.

His parents were rice farmers.

He studied for secondary education at a top provincial school, Roi Et Wittayalai, and gained the nickname "The Little Communist" for his rebellious actions.

He wrote poems and put papers all over the school walls rebuking and criticizing teachers and friends who cooperated in tutoring in extra-private classes.

He protested and collected a list of students who disagreed with class-time change because it would make rural students miss commuting back to their houses.

During his first three years at his school, it did not accept female students.

He promised the students to change that, which led to him elected as a student council president in 2002.

Having an interest in poetry, he chose the Thai language program in the Faculty of Education of Mahasarakham University in 2003, but the university did not interest him enough, so he did not enroll.

After reading the history of Thammasat University, he sought to be in the Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology at Thammasat University, but after two months, he decided to leave and studied law at Ramkhamhaeng University instead.

In 2005, Arnon and many other student activists supported the People's Alliance for Democracy in the 2005–2006 Thai political crisis at the beginning, being anti-authoritarian of Thaksin Shinawatra.

During the 2006 Thai coup d'état, he turned to be an anti-coup activist and joined Sombat Bunngam-anong's 19 September Network against Coup d'Etat group as a reciting poetry role.

He also joined the 'black shirt' protest led by Giles Ji Ungpakorn.

After Arnon graduated with a law degree in 2006, he was conscripted to the military for one year by catching a red lottery.

In 2007, he passed an exam for a lawyer license before his service ended.

He won the first case at Military courts of Thailand, in which his first client was a drafted military colleague.

Arnon started a lawyer internship in 2007 at EnLAW Thai Foundation by Surachai Trongngam, practicing human rights defense in cases such as the Sahaviriya steel mill project protests in Bang Saphan District, police crackdown on the Thai-Malay gas pipeline project protest, and the Charoen Wat-akson assassination-related Bo-Nok and Ban-Krut coal power plant protest, gaining him an awareness of problems involving human rights violations.

In 2008, his internship ended and he went out on a trial by himself.

He received a barrister degree from the Thai Bar Association in 2009.

Amid the Centre for Resolution of Emergency Situation, army group that took over the country after the 2010 red shirts crackdown occurred, Arnon became Sombat Bunngam-anong's the Red Sunday Group's lawyer, named by some media as the 'Red Sunday Lawyer'.

His ability to handle court cases earned him the nickname 'lawyer for the Red Shirts'.

He became a lawyer of the monarchy defamation cases because, because of the political crisis, red-shirt activists who disagreed with the 2010 coup were charged with lèse-majesté.

His early help on the cases were Chotisak Onsoong case, Suwicha Thakor case.

The firm helped operate the People's Information Center: The April-May 2010 Crackdowns (PIC) and involved in 'Nuamthong' movie

In 2011, Arnon started his pro bono law practice, the 'Ratsadornprasong Law Office'.

He worked with two other lawyers to help red-shirts protesters in almost 100 cases and people who had been charged with lèse-majesté in a political conflict.

The firm's notable cases and works included the burning of the Mukdahan Provincial Offices case with over twenty defendants; charges were later dismissed in 2019.

His firm also helped poor defendant families' welfare and provided reparations to other detained red-shirt defendants.

He helped in the 'Uncle SMS' Ampon Tangnoppakul case, Thantawut or 'Noom Rednont', Joe Gordon on a translation of The King Never Smiles book.

He is one of the leading figures of the 2020–2021 Thai protests, co-leading reforms to the monarchy reform movement by non-elite people for first time in Thai history.

In 2020, Nampa was detained without trial for 24 days.

Further to Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha using all laws, including lèse-majesté, against protesters in November 2020, Nampa's detention was ultimately extended to 110 days.

After he received bail in June 2021, he was imprisoned again from August 9, 2021, to February 27 February 2022, without trial for 203 days.

His total imprisonment time between 2020 and 2022 is 337 days.

On January 17, 2024, Nampa was sentenced to further four-year imprisonment for lèse-majesté through social media in 2021.