Thailand Targets Pro-Democracy Protesters in Sweeping Legal Dragnet

BANGKOK — A 16-year-old boy is facing possible jail time for parading down a makeshift catwalk in a crop top that evoked Thailand’s king. An actress stands accused of breaking the law by cheering on and delivering spicy takeout to hungry members of the country’s protest movement.

And another offender has been informed that selling a calendar decorated with a rubber duck could earn him 15 years in prison.

Hundreds of thousands of people marched in Thailand’s student-organized protests last year to demand reforms to the government and monarchy. But the democracy movement, armed with little more than duck-shaped pool floats to use as shields against water cannons, is now battling a serious threat to its mission: a raft of criminal prosecutions in recent weeks that could end with rally leaders and ordinary protesters alike locked up for decades.

After allowing the street rallies to…