Mr. Bundit Jaroenwanit, aged 45, and Mr. Jirawat Poompreuk, aged 52, were executed in Bangkok’s Bang Kwang prison, more than eight years after being arrested for possessing 114,219 pearls of methamphetamine. They became the country’s fifth and sixth persons to be executed by lethal injection, which replaced death by shooting in 2003. FIDH strongly condemns the fact that Mr. Bundit Jaroenwanit and Mr. Jirawat Poompreuk were reportedly only given 60 minutes to contact their families before their execution was carried out.
These executions marked the end of a de facto six-year-long moratorium on death penalty in Thailand. There are currently 832 persons convicted in death row in the country. According to Thai media reports, 127 of them have had their final court ruling, without further possibility of appeal. Despite the momentum at the international level on the death penalty and the United Nations General Assembly resolutions calling for a global moratorium towards abolition of the death penalty, Thailand defies international human rights standards with this cruel punishment.
FIDH calls Thailand to adopt an immediate moratorium on executions as a first step, with the final aim of the total abolition of the capital punishment. In the meantime, FIDH urges the Thai authorities to reduce the number of crimes punished by the death penalty but also to facilitate the access to lawyers at every stage of the proceedings and comply with their obligations under section 40 of the Constitution which states that « in a criminal case, the suspect or the accused has the right to correct, speedy and fairs inquiries or trials, adequate opportunities to defend himself or herself and to examine or be informed of evidence as necessary, legal assistance from an attorney and a provisional release.»