The cases are not about justice, hurt feelings or regaining reputations lost to libel and slander. The criminal defamation law, misused for decades by politicians and phuyai, represents long, stressful punishment for the accused. Just last week, the three civil rights activists had to travel to Pattani to acknowledge the charges against them, while Ms Naritsarawan was led away, taken by police from her life in Bangkok to the South, to be formally charged.

The process itself, being forced to participate in such outdated legal proceedings, is the entire punishment sought by the litigious officers of Isoc. Some call it revenge.