Torture of criminal suspects still in practice: Muslim lawyers' study
About 70 percent of security-related cases filed with the courts in three southernmost provinces during 2010 until early this year were dismissed by the courts due to insufficient evidences, according to a study undertaken by the Foundation of Muslim Lawyers Centre.
The study was funded by the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA).
Mr Anukul Arwaeputae, head of the Pattani chapter of the foundation, told a press conference on December 24 that most of the cases dismissed by the court were based on confessions of the suspects held in custody by virtue of the emergency decree of the Martial Law.
The study showed that in several cases the confessions were extracted from the suspects after they were beaten up or intimidated. Of the 100 security-related cases processed by the courts in the restive region, suspects in 30 cases were assaulted by the authorities during the interrogation process while in the other 35 cases there were complaints of vulgar language being used against the suspects plus 25 cases of alleged intimidation.
Of the 100 cases under study, 59 cases were resolved within 1-2 years by the courts of first instance. There were only three cases which took about three years before judgements were delivered by the court.
Mr Anukul disclosed that the study also showed a disturbing trend regarding the conduct of the authorities. In several cases, arrests or searches were made without warrants; suspects were not formally charged when they were taken into custody or suspects were denied the right to consult their lawyers or to contact their relatives after their arrests or their lawyers were not allowed to be present during the interrogation process.
Meanwhile, the Southern Border Police Operating Centre disclosed that the courts in the restive region had passed judgments on 262 security-related cases in the past seven years since 2004. Of these, 143 cases were convicted representing 54.58 of all the cases processed by the courts and 119 cases were dimissed.
Of the 143 cases in which 243 suspects were found guilty, 21 were sentenced to death, 56 were given life imprisonment and 169 defendants were jailed for not exceeding 50 years.
Pol Lt-Gen Paitoon Chuchaiya, chief of the Southern Border Police Operating Centre, explained that in many of the cases dismissed by the courts, witnesses refused to testify or just ran away or the defendants themselves reversed their statements.
He said that he had instructed police investigators not to proceed with their cases to the public prosecutors without sufficient evidences to back up the cases. He denied there had been complaints of torture of criminal suspects at the Pitak Santi interrogation centre for the past several years.
The police general claimed that the interrogation centre had been visited by representatives of the National Human Rights Commission and the International Jurists Commission and they were satisfied with the police performance at the centre.
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