Thailand carries out first execution since 2009

Inside the chamber at Bang Kwang prison, Thailand.

Thailand has carried out its first execution since 2009, the Department of Corrections said, killing a 26-year-old convicted murderer in a move condemned by Amnesty International as "deplorable".

Theerasak Longji was executed by lethal injection on Monday, six years after his conviction.

His death came as Thailand's coup leader-turned-premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha prepares to travel to the United Kingdom and France on a highly-publicised 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 since he seized power in a 2014 coup.

"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".

Thailand's Department of Corrections, which oversees one of the world's largest prison populations, said 325 convicts have been executed since 1935, the majority by firing squad.

That practice ended on December 11, 2003. Between then and 2009 a further six inmates were executed by lethal injection.

Monday's execution serves as a "lesson to deter those who wanted to commit serious crime or violate the law to consider this punishment," the department added in a statement.

But rights groups hit out at the sudden resumption of the death penalty, which remains mandatory for a number of offences, including aggravated murder.

"This is a deplorable violation of the right to life," Amnesty International said, accusing the kingdom of "reneging" on commitments to move towards abolition of the death penalty.

The country is "also putting itself out of step with the current global shift away from capital punishment."

Theerasak stabbed his victim 24 times before stealing their mobile phone and wallet, the department said.

Figures provided to Amnesty International 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.

The death penalty is still in practice in several countries in Asia, including Singapore, Indonesia and China, which remains the world's top executioner.

The International Federation of Human Rights also condemned the move, calling it a "betrayal".

It said that Thailand would have achieved the status of "de facto abolitionist" had it not carried out any executions before August 24 2019, 10 years after the last death penalties were carried out.

Source: Agence France-Presse, June 19, 2018

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