THAILAND: Lives of witnesses at risk if ministry does not reverse decision on protection before February 29

Dear Friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is gravely concerned that despite calls from human rights defenders and organisations across Asia and around the world, still the justice ministry in Thailand has not reversed its decision to transfer responsibility for protection of witnesses in human rights cases under its control back to the police. If it does not reverse this decision before February 29, the lives of victims of torture, and relatives of people killed and disappeared by state officers will be at risk.

CASE DETAILS:

As the AHRC wrote previously, from February 29 people whose cases are being handled by the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) under Thailand’s Ministry of Justice will no longer receive protection from the department directly. Instead police will be responsible for them (AHRC-OLT-004-2008).

Among the persons affected is Angkhana Neelaphaijit, the wife of abducted human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit, who has said that she will refuse the police. Others who have joined with her in saying that they will not accept the police are the three victims of police torture from the south of Thailand, and the relative of a victim of police killing in the north and a witness in the same case. (See further: AHRC-PRL-005-2008).

Other groups that have expressed concern about the decision and have called for it to be reversed include the May 18 Memorial Foundation (Korea), which gave Angkhana its 2006 human rights award (AHRC-FOL-004-2008).

In a related development, the AHRC is also extremely concerned and is closely watching the sudden replacement of the head of the DSI just hours after Angkhana visited the sacked head. The new director is a police officer, again securing the full control of the police over what is supposed to be a non-police agency. The new head also was the former commander of the police who were accused of abducting Angkhana’s husband in 2004, and was a subordinate of the earlier DSI chief accused of perverting justice and thwarting the investigation into the case. That former DSI chief is now a deputy commissioner general of the entire police force in Thailand and his brother is the justice minister. He is also reportedly acting on an “advisory panel” for his brother.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

A witness protection programme was set up by the Ministry of Justice in accordance with the Witness Protection Act BE 2546 (2003). This act, introduced through the now abrogated Constitution of BE 2540 (1997), was a welcome albeit limited initiative because it recognised the importance of offering protection and also for the first time acknowledged that it should not be the responsibility of police to protect victims and witnesses of serious crimes, paving the way for an Office of Witness Protection under the ministry. However, it is apparent that there are now steps underway to undo the whole work of developing some notions of effective witness protection in Thailand, which are part of a bigger project to reverse all of the moves towards greater protection of human rights begun in the 1990s.

The Asian Legal Resource Centre, sister organisation of the AHRC, published a detailed report on witness protection in Thailand during 2006: Protecting witnesses or perverting justice in Thailand, (article 2, vol. 5, no. 3, June 2006.) (and in Thai).

For more details of the DSI and how despite being under the justice ministry it has to a large extent remained a de facto police agency see for instance: AS-016-2007; AS-311-2006.

See also the Somchai Neelapaijhit homepage: http://campaigns.ahrchk.net/somchai

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write to the Minister of Justice to urge that this decision on witness protection be reversed without delay or he will be putting the lives of many persons at grave risk.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER