Criminal law in Thailand Part LXXXIII: Citizen's arrest
Published: 16/10/2011 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: Spectrum
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/crimes/ ... zen-arrest
Can a private person, not a police or government official, arrest someone who is committing a crime? This is popularly called citizen's arrest. In Thailand it is possible, but there are specific rules that apply.
To begin with, a citizen's arrest can be undertaken by Thai citizens or foreigners and is covered by sections 79 through 84 of Thailand's Criminal Procedure Code. It only applies to offences listed in a schedule to the code. Several of these are political and related to international affairs. Those that are common crimes are:
Escapes by prisoners.
Rioting.
Injuring public security, communications or health.
Counterfeiting.
Rape.
Causing death (for example, murder).
Causing bodily harm.
Kidnapping.
Theft, snatching (theft by quickly grabbing something), robbery and extortion.
You can't execute a citizen's arrest if the crime isn't on the above list.
Also, you can't perform a citizen's arrest unless the crime is considered flagrant under Thai law. Flagrant means that the crime is being committed or has just been committed in your presence, or where there can be practically no doubt that the person just committed it. Here are situations in which the law considers you could be sure of this:
When the offender is being pursued by others who have seen him or her commit the crime.
When the offender is found very soon after the crime has been committed and has in his or her possession a) spoils of the crime such as items stolen, b) equipment used in the crime such as weapons or burglary tools or there are clear indications of the crime on the offender's body or clothes, such as blood stains.
Let's look at some examples of when you can and can't perform a citizen's arrest. We will assume for these you aren't a police officer or other government official.
Say you're walking on a back street late at night. You come upon two men holding down a women and preparing to rape her. They see you and run away. You chase them and grab one of them. Can you arrest him and take him to the police station?
Yes, because you've caught the two men in the process of a rape, which is one of the crimes on the above list. Second you've seen them in commission of the crime, so the crime is flagrant.
How about this one? One of your employees comes to you and says your driver raped her yesterday. She is extremely upset and is with another employee who walked in on the rape but was prevented from stopping it by a friend of your driver's. Can you arrest your driver and take him to the police?
No. Although rape is one of the crimes on the above list, the crime isn't flagrant. It was committed a day ago when you weren't around. What you have to do in this case is go to the police, have your employee tell the story and have them arrest the driver.
Here's a final example. You're walking down the street. Everyone in your neighbourhood knows there is a drug dealer hanging around and selling drugs to certain of your neighbours.
You come upon this character, obviously selling drugs to a group of people on a street corner. Can you arrest him and take him to the police station?
No, because selling drugs isn't on the above list. If you'd come upon a robbery under the same circumstances you could grab the robber and take him to the police, because the crime of robbery is on the above list of crimes for which you can make a citizen's arrest.
More about the rules relating to citizen's arrest next week.
James Finch of Chavalit Finch and
Partners (finch@chavalitfinchlaw.com) and
Nilobon Tangprasit of Siam City Law Offices Ltd
(nilobon@siamcitylaw.com).
Researchers: Sitra Horsinchai and
Arnon Rungthanakarn.
For more information visit www.chavalitfinchlaw.com.
Questions? Contact us at the email addresses above.
