Riot fallout: 18 ex-inmates face death sentence in Thailand prison riot

Thong Pha Phum Provincial Court in the central province of Kanchanaburi sentenced 18 former Thai inmates to death following the death of two people and six injuries in a riot in the Thong Phra Phum Prison nine years ago.

The death penalty was given to 18 of the 26 inmates involved in the riot that occurred on February 22, 2015. Throughout the legal proceedings, all 26 inmates were gradually acquitted from jail and summoned to the final court hearing yesterday February 22.

In 2015, a conflict erupted among three factions of prisoners: the Ban Mueang Kan group, the Ban Bor Ploy group, and the Ban Thamaka group. Over 70 soldiers and police officers were deployed to quell the disturbance.

Some 70 inmates from the Ban Mueang Kan and Ban Bor Ploy groups launched an attack on 30 inmates from the Ban Thamaka group, resulting in two fatalities and six injuries. Both fatalities were among the Ban Thamaka prisoners, with one sustaining stab wounds to the face and the other stabbed in the back and torso.

The dispute originated when Thamaka prisoners warned inmates from the other two groups not to engage in tattooing near CCTV cameras, as it violated prison rules. The warning angered prisoners from the two groups, leading to the fatal attack.

According to ThaiRath, the attackers used five pieces of steel during the riot but authorities did not clarify where and how the prisoner obtained the steel.

Death penalty

Following the investigation, of the 26 prisoners involved in the riot, only 24 suspects were presented in court, as one of them died, and another escaped arrest.

The court sentenced 18 suspects to the death penalty, and one to life imprisonment, and dropped charges against five others. They were immediately transferred to prison after the court hearing. The schedule for the execution had not yet been released.

Thailand abstained from carrying out the death penalty for nine years, nearly triggering its automatic abolition after a decade without executions, in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). However, in 2018, during the ninth year, one Thai prisoner named Theerasak received a death sentence for the fatal killing of a victim during a theft.

Recent reports indicate that the latest Thai criminal to face the death sentence is a 47 year old man named Prasitthichai “Golf” Khaokaew. Golf murdered three victims during a gold robbery at a shopping mall in the central province of Singburi. One of his victims was a two year old boy adding cruelty to the case.