The Narathiwat Provincial Court closed proceedings against defendants in the Tak Bai Massacre case last Friday (25 October) as the twenty-year statute of limitations for pressing charges had been reached. The defendants were never arraigned, highlighting the difficulties of bringing politically-influential figures to justice in Thailand.

Thai news outlets reported that the Narathiwat Provincial Court closed the massacre case after authorities were unable to arraign any of the defendants, some having fled abroad. As a result, no one was held accountable for the tragic incident that happened in Thailand’s deep south two decades ago.

This past April, surviving family members of 48 victims filed a lawsuit accusing 9 government officials of murder by torture, acts of cruelty, coercion, unlawful detention, and malfeasance. The Court subsequently accepted the lawsuit against 6 individuals, including Gen Pisarn Wattanawongkiri, a former Pheu Thai MP who abruptly left the country to seek medical treatment overseas and resigned just ten days before the case expired.

None of the defendants appeared in the court for the first hearing on 12 September.  They also failed to report for a second hearing on 15 October. The court then issued an ultimatum demanding that the defendants report by midnight on 25 October. No one came.

With the statute of limitations in the case having passed, the court ruled on 28 October that prosecution of the defendants was no longer possible.  A separate proceeding met with the same outcome.  A Matichon report notes  that on 12 September, the Attorney General indicted 8 defendants for extrajudicial killings. The time limit for prosecution in this case also expired on 25 October, before the public prosecutor was able to bring it before the Pattani Provincial Court. As the case was not under the court’s jurisdiction, it had yet to issue any orders.

No longer facing charges, all 14 fugitive defendants are now free to resume their normal lives. According to Matichon, one of the defendants, Wissanu Lertsongkram, reappeared the day after the Court’s ruling to dismiss the case.  Earlier, a warrant had been issued for his arrest.  He somehow succeeded in requesting leave in mid-October and could not be reached for 10 days, only reappeared on 28 October.

The government is being widely criticised for failing to provide the victims’ families with justice. Given its stringent approach to defendants in cases involving political expression, many have also noted that the government appears to have a double standard in the application of law.

Human Rights Watch, for one, issued a statement about the government’s continuous failure to bring to justice in cases against security force personnel alleged to have abused, tortured, and murdered ethnic Malay Muslims in the South.  The organisation also reiterated that  Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, whose father was prime minister at the time of the Tak Bai massacre, should act on her pledge to strengthen rule of law in Thailand, by urgently passing an amendment to Section 95 of Thai Criminal Code, which governs the statute of limitations for criminal offences.

In Thailand, the statute of limitations is often used as a loophole to escape criminal proceedings as tolling the statute of limitations is not applied to those fugitive perpetrators. Alleged perpetrators, therefore, often flee the country, only returning when they can no longer be prosecuted. Noting that this contributes to a culture of impunity, legal scholars argue that the law should be amended.