Criminal Law in Thailand Part 6: How long can they hold you?

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Criminal Law in Thailand Part 6: How long can they hold you?
By James Finch and Nilobon Tangprasit
Published: 9/05/2010 at 12:00 AM
Bangkok Post: Newspaper section: Spectrum

If you're arrested, how long can you be held? This is not a question of how long you can be put in jail if you're convicted. What we're talking about here is is how long the police can hold you at the time of arrest. This is prior to the formal phase of the process where your guilt or innocence is decided and you are sentenced, if adjudged guilty.

After arrest, and once formal charges have been read to you (called the arraignment), in most cases you have to be released to await further proceedings such as the trial.

If you have been arrested for a petty offence, as defined in Title 3 of the Thai Criminal Code, you can only be held for the time reasonably required to record your identity, your address and to obtain a statement from you about the crime.

Generally, you cannot be held in connection with a petty offence for more than 48 hours. Petty offences are those for which the maximum imprisonment is one month and/or a maximum fine of 1,000 baht.

Examples of petty offences are fighting and public intoxication. The police may keep a suspect longer than just the time to identify them and get a statement under two circumstances.

The first circumstance is that the suspect was arrested via an arrest warrant and the warrant, which must be signed by a judge, specified that the arrestee had to be kept until he or she should be brought before a judge.

The second circumstance under which the police can keep a suspect for an extended period is if a court has issued a detention warrant as a result of a request filed by the police.

A court may issue such a warrant after requesting testimony from the accused, who may, of course, already be in custody. The police may be asked to give testimony or other evidence to the judge, as well.

The amount of time the accused can be held depends on the severity of the penalty of the crime.

FOR EXAMPLE:
- for offences that have a maximum penalty of no more than six months in jail - seven days;

- for offences that have a maximum penalty of more than 10 years in jail - 48 days.

Depending on the offence, the maximum number of days mentioned above is a total of lesser extensions that must be requested by the authorities.

In cases of serious offences where the accused may be in jail after arrest for up to 48 days, the Public Prosecutor can get the accused kept in jail longer by filing a petition with a court.

A court is likely to grant such a petition in cases where the accused is violent or likely to flee. While you are in custody the police must explain to you that you can either make a statement or not, but if you do, what you say can later be used in evidence against you.

If and when the police take your statement, you have to be allowed to give your side of the story and have it written into the record prepared by the police.

This again highlights the necessity to have a representative with you who speaks Thai, because everything will be written in Thai. Incidentally, if you are giving a statement through an interpreter, the interpreter must give an affirmation swearing to translate truthfully. Failure by the interpreter to do so may affect the admissibility of the statement in court.

Remember, all of the above relates to what the police can do prior to trial. We will talk about formal accusation, trial and conviction later.
 
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