Ratsadon’s ‘duck’ currency violates Currency Act: activist
The Ratsadon group’s “duck” currency violates the Currency Act BE 2501 (1958) and Criminal Code, Srisuwan Janya, an activist and secretary-general of the Society for Defence of the Thai Constitution, said on Thursday.
He explained that pro-democracy protesters under the group handed out 3,000 duck banknotes for use in about 10 stores during the protest at Siam Commercial Bank headquarters on Bangkok’s Ratchadapisek Road on Wednesday.
Srisuwan also said the banknotes feature a picture of the Democracy Monument, fried meatballs, a white pigeon, Ratsadon’s 2020 coup memorial plaque and inflatable rubber ducks with a value equal to Bt10.
He said persons who produce, deliver, use or receive the duck currency face a jail sentence of up to three years or up to Bt50,000 in fine or both under Section 9 of the Currency Act BE 2501, which says that “no person should make, issue, use or put into circulation any material or token for money except by authority of the Finance Minister”.
“Besides, they would be punished under Section 240 and 244 of the Criminal Code,” Srisuwan said.
Section 240 of the Criminal Code says that “whoever counterfeits currency, irrespective of whether to make as a coin, banknote or any other that is used or authorised to be used by the government or to counterfeit government bonds or interest coupons attached to such bonds, such a person is said to commit the offence of counterfeiting currency and shall be punished with life imprisonment or 10 to 20 years imprisonment and fined Bt200,000 to Bt400,000”.
Section 244 says that “whoever possesses anything obtained by him, which he knows to be counterfeited according to Section 240 or altered according to Section 241, shall be punished with imprisonment of 1 to 15 years and fined Bt20,000 to Bt300,000”.
“Therefore, police officers can take legal action against protesters and stores for using such currency,” Srisuwan added.
Meanwhile, Phaholyothin police have threatened to charge protesters with lese majeste and violating the Currency Act for using mocked-up currency carrying a picture of a duck wearing a crown at Wednesday’s rally.
The lese majeste law (Section 112) carries prison terms of three to 15 years.