Charnchao Chaiyanukij, human rights activist and director-general...

Charnchao Chaiyanukij, human rights activist and director-general of the Justice Ministry's Rights and Liberty Protection Department was reported as saying that the death penalty in Thailand was a "sensitive and controversial issue". "There are many people like me who support the abolition of the death sentence even though it will take many years for Thailand to reach that point," he said. He wanted the death penalty abolished because the due process of law in Thailand could not be guaranteed and was incomplete. Poorly conducted trials could lead to irreversible miscarriages of justice in which innocent people were executed. Imposing the death sentence, he said, did more harm than good to a society, especially where people were wrongly convicted and imprisoned. Mr Charnchao said there were recent criticisms based on this argument from human rights activists. They felt a life sentence was severe enough to cause remorse in a convicted criminal while still respecting their essential right to life and dignity. "If the country has measures to correct the behaviour of offenders and to teach them to be good people, I believe the problem of crime could decrease," he said. Another rights activist, Jaran Ditthapichai, questioned the true objective of capital punishment. "Is it just retribution against those who have done something wrong?" he asked. "Or is it the only way to separate these people from the rest of the society?" Mr Jaran said a non-parole life sentence was sufficient punishment and the convicted would be denied the chance of returning to society ever again to make trouble. He said he could not see the change in the method of execution from death by shooting to death by lethal injection, which was to commence on 19 October 2003, leading to the abolition of capital punishment further down the track. Justice Minister Pongthep Thepkanchana said he did not support the abolition of capital punishment as Thailand had too many criminal problems. He said public forums had been held to gage opinion on the matter and most had arrived at the conclusion that the death penalty should be retained as a deterrent. "If the country does not impose the death penalty, there will be fewer restraints on people," he said, adding that the use of lethal injection instead of the firing squad was more acceptable to most countries of the world as it was more humane. There was only one way to abolish the death penalty in Thailand, the Minister said, "to never commute a non-parole life sentence. A life sentence would mean exactly that; those so convicted would never again taste freedom outside the walls of a prison."