Lawless cops

In a post a day or so ago, PPT in discussing another unusual court ruling, we referred to Chapter III of the 2017 Constitution where the Rights and Liberties of Thais are set out. In commenting we noted that ” the regime is arguably in breach of almost all of the provisions in that chapter.”

A reader asked us for an example. Rather than going through past cases, we thought it better to refer to a case we had yet to comment on.

Prachatai reports on the arrest of two people “during a candle vigil for a dead protester at Din Daeng Police Station…”. The claim to have been subject to “beatings and death threats” in police custody. In other words, they were tortured.

Arguably, this arrest and torture breaches Articles 28, 29 and 30 of the Constitution.

But, as we know, the regime and its minions don’t give a fig about law and constitution, while the police are thugs, torturers and murderers. In this case, one of the men was arrested on 29 October. He was beaten and threatened:

… he and another protester were taken inside the police station where he was subjected to beatings in an effort to obtain information that he said he did not know. The police reportedly told him that if he died during the beatings, they would make his death look like an accident.

“A police officer senior to the others said ‘Let me have him. I want this one.’ Then he started the beating, asking me if I knew the shooter. I said I didn’t but he kept on hitting me.”

“They beat me a lot. They kicked me.  They punched me. They smacked my head into a wooden chair. They use a baton on to hit the ribs on my right  side. Then, they choked me to get my phone password… I told them but it was wrong.  I couldn’t remember. They squeezed my neck so hard that I almost fainted.”

He was released on 02.30.  Afterwards, he was subject to normal investigation procedures and charged with participating in a gathering and causing public disorder.

Another man who was arrested and beaten. He was

… taken to a solitary room and stripped down to his pants. Interrogators stomped on his genitals and stubbed out cigarettes on his lower stomach.

“It was very bad. I had to brace myself all the time because I didn’t know when they were going to hit me again…”.

All of this is now standard police practice.