Law and judiciary
3,000 officers, metal detectors to secure New Year's Countdown
About 3,000 soldiers and police have been deployed to Bangkok’s Ratchaprasong area where walk-through metal detectors also were installed to secure the New Year’s Countdown site on 31 December. Keep reading ...
Convoy of Lao trucks transports logs to Vietnam, despite ban on timber exports
Laos has continued to transport logs from its forests to Vietnam, despite a government ban on timber exports that took effect in August and a leaked report by an international environmental group two months ago, revealing huge increases in illegal logging with the implication of ...
Deadly attacks by bandits in Laos leave one dead, three injured
Bandits in a mountainous and isolated province in northern central Laos have shot one person dead and injured three others in the latest of a series of attacks on vehicles passing through the region, said a retired Lao soldier close to a high-ranking officer in ...
Activists call for witness protection as major Thai human trafficking trial begins
Thai authorities must step up witness protection for a major human trafficking trial with the accused including an army general and one investigator fleeing the country fearing for his life, activists said on 24 December as the first witnesses gave evidence. The case includes 88 defendants allegedly ...
Protest outside Thai embassy in Myanmar against murder verdict
Hundreds of protesters demonstrated outside Thailand’s embassy in Yangon on 25 December after two Myanmar migrants were sentenced to death by a Thai court for murdering two British backpackers, in a verdict that has sparked anger in their homeland. Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun were found ...
Administrative court rules in favour of Egat over Xayaburi Dam
Thailand’s Administrative Court on 25 December dismissed complaints over the Xayaburi Dam against five state agencies. However, the 37 plaintiffs, from eight Mekong provinces, say they will appeal further. The judge, who read the verdict, said the defendants had fully complied with their obligation according to the law, ...
Myanmar politician objects Koh Tao verdict
A Myanmar political group, 88 Generation Peace and Open Society, today showed its objection against the death sentence handed down to two Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand. Keep reading ...
Police raid brothel, free seven girls
A group of seven Vietnamese and Cambodian girls were freed during a raid on a brothel in Battambang province on 23 December in which three suspected brokers were arrested, according to anti-human trafficking police. Officers entered the nameless “massage parlor” in Kamrieng district’s Boeng Raing commune at ...
Thai court hands Myanmar men death penalty for British tourist murders
Two Myanmar migrants were sentenced to death on 24 December for murdering a pair of British holidaymakers on a Thai island, in a case that sullied the kingdom’s reputation as a tourist haven and raised questions over its justice system. Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun were ...
Bangkok traffic violators given 100-baht 'fine gift'
Traffic violators have been given time until 15 January to pay a flat-rate fine of 100 baht for all minor traffic offences committed in Bangkok as a “New Year gift” offered by the acting Metropolitan Police Bureau chief. Pol Lt Gen Sanit Mahathaworn said on 22 ...
