Thailand
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
Data card
- Legal status
- Retentionist
- Executions recorded in 2026
- 0
- Executions recorded in 2025
- 0
- First news item in the archive
- JANUARY 1, 1999 · The Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or...
- News items in the archive
- 448
Source: Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026.
Thailand is classified as Retentionist in the Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026. In 2026 the association recorded 0 executions in the country, against 0 the year before. The archive holds 448 news items on Thailand, from 1999 to today.
Latest news
- JUNE 1, 2004ThailandDEATH PENALTY
Jengchiang, alias Archong sae Chee, a 42 year old Chinese...
Jengchiang, alias Archong sae Chee, a 42 year old Chinese farmer in Chiang Rai, was sentenced to death by the Thai Criminal after being found guilty of possessing drugs with intent to sell
- MAY 26, 2004ThailandDEATH PENALTY
Thailand's bloody "war on drugs" marred its rights...
Thailand's bloody "war on drugs" marred its rights record in 2003, Amnesty International said in an annual report which also noted that critics of the government faced threats and harassment
- APRIL 30, 2004ThailandDEATH PENALTY
Apisit Nanthapisit, the leader of a gang that abducted...
Apisit Nanthapisit, the leader of a gang that abducted and brutally killed an insurance manager in May 2003, was sentenced to death by a Criminal Court in Thailand, while two accomplices received life imprisonment
- APRIL 12, 2004ThailandDEATH PENALTY
The death penalty applies in Thailand to murder and heroin or amphetamine drug trafficking
The death penalty applies in Thailand to murder and heroin or amphetamine drug trafficking
- MARCH 24, 2004ThailandDEATH PENALTY
British teenager Alan Connell narrowly escaped the...
British teenager Alan Connell narrowly escaped the death penalty in Thailand when a court commuted his sentence to life imprisonment for trafficking thousands of ecstasy pills
- MARCH 13, 2004ThailandDEATH PENALTY
The Thai Criminal Court sentenced to death by lethal...
The Thai Criminal Court sentenced to death by lethal injection four people after convicting them of possessing more than one million methamphetamine pills
- MARCH 3, 2004ThailandDEATH PENALTY
The Thai Criminal Court sentenced to death Phan Phripwai...
The Thai Criminal Court sentenced to death Phan Phripwai and Phongsri Kulasithi, female, for trading 250,000 methamphetamine tablets
- MARCH 2, 2004ThailandDEATH PENALTY
Twenty-three-year-old Thai national Nothanam M
Twenty-three-year-old Thai national Nothanam M
- FEBRUARY 27, 2004ThailandDEATH PENALTY
The Thai government lodged a formal complaint against...
The Thai government lodged a formal complaint against the US' annual global human rights report, in which it described Thailand's record as having worsened in the past year
- FEBRUARY 27, 2004ThailandDEATH PENALTY
The Thai government lodged a formal complaint against...
The Thai government lodged a formal complaint against the US' annual global human rights report, in which it described Thailand's record as having worsened in the past year
- FEBRUARY 26, 2004ThailandDEATH PENALTY
Thailand's human rights credentials declined in 2003,...
Thailand's human rights credentials declined in 2003, the United States said in a blunt criticism over the kingdom's deadly war on drugs
- JANUARY 25, 2004ThailandDEATH PENALTY
Songphol Prathangthatho, 29, a former police officer,...
Songphol Prathangthatho, 29, a former police officer, was sentenced to death by the Thai Criminal Court after being found guilty of possessing drugs with the intent to sell
- DECEMBER 30, 2003ThailandDEATH PENALTY
The Pattani Provincial Court in Thailand sentenced...
The Pattani Provincial Court in Thailand sentenced Sakkariya Yimahama, a Muslim man, to death for killing a policeman in Pattani
- DECEMBER 12, 2003ThailandDEATH PENALTY
Thailand carried out its first executions by lethal...
Thailand carried out its first executions by lethal injection after abolishing the firing squad, putting to death three drug traffickers and a murderer at the notorious Bang Kwang jail, officials said
- NOVEMBER 5, 2003ThailandDEATH PENALTY
Amnesty International released a report criticising...
Amnesty International released a report criticising the lack of a credible investigation into the bloodshed unleashed by Thailand's 2003 official war on drugs
- NOVEMBER 5, 2003ThailandDEATH PENALTY
A Thai court sentenced a Russian national to death...
A Thai court sentenced a Russian national to death for a bank robbery during which a police officer was shot dead
- OCTOBER 19, 2003ThailandDEATH PENALTY
After 68 years and 319 lives taken by the firing squad,...
After 68 years and 319 lives taken by the firing squad, a ceremony was held to mark the end of this execution style and the beginning of death row convicts getting lethal injections
- OCTOBER 10, 2003ThailandDEATH PENALTY
Amnesty International urged Thailand to abolish the...
Amnesty International urged Thailand to abolish the death penalty and said its October 19, 2003 switch to execution by lethal injection instead of firing squad did not change the "inhumanity" of the penalty
- SEPTEMBER 19, 2003ThailandDEATH PENALTY
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"
- AUGUST 29, 2003ThailandDEATH PENALTY
A father and son were acquitted of heroin-trafficking...
A father and son were acquitted of heroin-trafficking charges, but the father's mistress and two accomplices in the same gang were sentenced to death
- AUGUST 10, 2003ThailandDEATH PENALTY
The Thai Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for...
The Thai Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for Fang Kee Tun, a 46 year old Singaporean convicted of possessing 1
- AUGUST 7, 2003ThailandDEATH PENALTY
"The new execution law will be effective from October...
"The new execution law will be effective from October 19, requiring lethal injection to replace the firing squad," Thai correction Department officials told AFP
- JULY 18, 2003ThailandDEATH PENALTY
Pattana Sriwiboon, 38, was sentenced to death after...
Pattana Sriwiboon, 38, was sentenced to death after he admitted killing Thaweepong Boonsin, 45, mayor of tambon Tha Phae, on August 22, 2001
- JULY 1, 2003ThailandDEATH PENALTY
Thailand's Criminal Court sentenced four Laotians to...
Thailand's Criminal Court sentenced four Laotians to death for intending to sell illegal drugs in the kingdom
- MAY 30, 2003ThailandDEATH PENALTY
Amnesty International said in a report issued in London...
Amnesty International said in a report issued in London that extrajudicial killings and the torture and ill-treatment of prisoners and ethnic minorities continued throughout Thailand in 2002
- MAY 9, 2003ThailandDEATH PENALTY
A Bill was approved changing execution method to lethal...
A Bill was approved changing execution method to lethal injection instead of firing squad
- MAY 8, 2003ThailandDEATH PENALTY
The Supreme Court upheld the death sentence given to...
The Supreme Court upheld the death sentence given to Duan Meerak, a 38-year-old woman, for possessing 70,000 speed pills in 1998
- APRIL 29, 2003ThailandDEATH PENALTY
Five people were sentenced to death, including two...
Five people were sentenced to death, including two prison officers and a policeman, for possessing more than 800,000 methamphetamine pills with intent to sell
- APRIL 29, 2003ThailandDEATH PENALTY
Thailand lost its membership of the United Nations...
Thailand lost its membership of the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights after a secret ballot at the UN headquarters in New York resulted in Thailand's failure to win a second term
- APRIL 24, 2003ThailandDEATH PENALTY
Thailand voted against the resolution on the death...
Thailand voted against the resolution on the death penalty approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights, in Geneva