Image source, Reuters

Image caption, Arnon Nampa dressed as Harry Potter at the protest in August 2020

By Jonathan Head

South East Asia correspondent Reporting from Bangkok

Even before they come through the door, you can hear the prisoners walking towards the courtroom, the shackles round their ankles clinking with each step.

The five who walk into the courtroom are familiar with the routine; they are facing multiple criminal prosecutions and have spent much of the past five years going back and forth to court.

One of them, a small, bespectacled man with greying hair, opens his arms to hold his three-year-old son, who has been brought to court by his partner to see him.

This is Arnon Nampa, a 42-year-old human rights lawyer. His offence was to call for Thailand's powerful monarchy to be scrutinised and held accountable.…