Law and judiciary

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on 15 December dropped a controversial bill regulating genetically modified organisms (GMOs), saying the bill currently was unnecessary.  The legislation was initiated long ago and its consideration should stop as there was no pressing need for it, the prime minister said after the ...

The Supreme Court on 14 December handed a life sentence to the man who led red-shirt protestors to torch Ubon Ratchathani’s provincial hall in 2010, overruling a lower court’s sentence of only one year.  The high court initially gave the death penalty to 60-year-old Pichet Thabutda, a ...

Opium production in Myanmar has “stabilised” at stubbornly high levels, the United Nations said on 14 December, adding the government must address poverty and end the conflicts which drive farmers to grow illicit poppies. Myanmar, the world’s second largest opium producer after Afghanistan, has struggled to ...

Lao authorities have imposed a curfew in north-central Xaysomboun Province after a spate of violence in which three government soldiers and three civilians were killed, police and other sources said 11 December.The authorities blamed the violence last month on bandits, but a source close to ...

Police on 11 December said they were considering suing a former officer investigating human trafficking for defamation over comments he made implicating senior officials in the trade. Pol Maj Gen Paween Pongsirin arrived in Melbourne a few days ago and told the Australian Broadcasting Corp on 10 ...

Thai soldiers opened fire on a group of 17 illegal loggers on 10 December evening, wounding two, police said. The group had illegally crossed the border into Thailand in Oddar Meanchey province under cover of darkness when they encountered a Thai patrol, according to Brigadier General Men ...

Senior officials from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia on 10 December signed a joint statement on drug control co-operation, vowing to make the ASEAN bloc drug-free at the 15th Trilateral and Bilateral Ministerial Meeting of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos on Drug Control Co-operation. The joint statement was inked ...

A new idea has been presented that would allow Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to get around a constitutional provision that bars her from the presidency.  The proposal appears to be gaining ground and has now received the backing of a former senior military officer serving ...

National Assembly (NA) members on 8 December approved a second amendment to the constitution in response to changing needs in the current era of development. The constitution serves as the foundation for the enactment of the country’s laws and the changes aim to better manage state and ...

Fishermen who were enslaved and in some cases held captive for a decade aboard seafood trawlers in Indonesia are now taking part in a lawsuit against one of the accused companies.  The 14 Myanmar fishermen were flown back to Indonesia to serve as witnesses in the ...