Five murderers executed by firing squad

BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand has executed five prisoners found guilty of murder, corrections officials said Saturday. The five men, ranging in age from 26 to 51, were shot dead by a firing squad late on Friday after their appeals for royal clemency were rejected, the officials said. The men were all convicted for murders committed between 1983 and 1996, they said, adding that this was the largest number of people executed at one time in Thailand. In July, the corrections department said it would suspend executions of death row inmates during the Buddhist lent, which continues through October. But, said officials, the executions were moved forward to avoid carrying out the death sentences in December, when the country will celebrate the 72nd birthday of HM The King. The latest executions bring to 13 the number of convicts put to death this year. Thirty-six people remain on death row in Bangkok’s maximum-security Bangkwang prison.