Thailand’s Department of Corrections yesterday executed a 26-year-old murderer by lethal injection, the first time the country’s death penalty has been employed in nine years.
Theerasak Longji was convicted of the brutal killing of a high school boy on July 17, 2012, in southern Trang province, in which he stabbed the victim to death during a robbery, according to an announcement released by the Department of Corrections last night.
The execution followed appeals that saw Thailand’s Supreme Court uphold earlier decisions at the civil and appeal court levels.
According to local media reports, Theerasak was 19 years old at the time he and an unnamed accomplice chased Danudech Sukmak, 17, into a public park in Muang district.
Theerasak stabbed the victim 24 times and made off with the boy’s THB2,000 (about US$60) cash and mobile phone.
At the time of the murder, Theerasak already had a criminal record ranging from drugs charges to illegal possession of a weapon.
The Department of Corrections noted that it has now executed 326 convicts since 1935. The last seven people, including Theerasak, were killed via lethal injection, while the rest died in front of a firing squad.
The last inmate executed was Bandit Chareonwanit, a male convicted on drugs charges who was the state killed on Aug. 24, 2009.
This morning, Amnesty Thailand, which advocates against the death penalty in all cases, released a statement condemning Theerasak’s execution.
“This incident was a shameful violation of rights to life. It is shocking that Thailand went back on its mission to abolish death penalty and protection of lives. It has acted against the world’s movement to abolish death penalty.”
Figures provided to Amnesty by the Ministry of Justice show 510 people, including 94 women, were on death row at the end of last year.
Nearly 200 had exhausted all final appeals — like Theerasak.
More than half are believed to have been sentenced for drug-related offences.
While the government’s statement said they hoped the execution would “be a lesson for those who think of committing a severe crime or break the laws,” you still have to wonder: After nine years — why now?
The timing is particularly odd given that Thailand’s coup leader-turned-premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha is preparing to travel to Britain and France on a highly-publicized official visit.
But the trip will now likely see the former army chief face awkward questions over the use of the death penalty as well as Thailand’s wider human rights record.
“We still have the death sentence, we have not cancelled it yet,” Tawatchai Thaikaew, deputy permanent secretary at the Justice Ministry, told AFP, adding that the execution on Monday was carried out “according to the law.”
Additional reporting by AFP.
