Thailand: End Impunity For Torture, Provide Justice For Myanmar National Killed By Thai Soldiers

(BANGKOK, December 11, 2024)— Thailand must end impunity for torture by ensuring the effective implementation of its own anti-torture law, Fortify Rights said today. In a report released last month, Fortify Rights revealed how Thai soldiers beat Myanmar national Aung Ko Ko to death at the Thailand-Myanmar border. Tomorrow, Aisha Shujune Muhammad, Vice Chair of the U.N. Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture, will participate in a national dialogue event in the Thai parliament to discuss torture prevention..

“It has been 11 months, almost to the day, since Thai soldiers stationed at the border with Myanmar beat Aung Ko Ko to death in a textbook case of torture,” said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer at Fortify Rights. “Thailand should do everything in its power to end impunity for torture, and the authorities should start with this case. Thailand should ratify the Optional Protocol and act urgently to bring Aung Ko Ko’s killers to justice.”

Later today, Thailand’s parliament will host a meeting involving government agencies, parliamentarians, and civil society to discuss Thailand’s potential ratification of the Optional Protocol to the U.N. Convention Against Torture. Thailand became a party to the U.N. Convention Against Torture (CAT) on November 1, 2007. In February 2023, Thailand passed the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act, known as the Anti-Torture Act, transferring provisions of the CAT into domestic law. The CAT Optional Protocol would further obligate Thailand to fully implement the CAT through national legislation and establish independent national preventive mechanisms to monitor and prevent torture in the country.

On November 14, Fortify Rights released a 44-page report, Death at the Thai-Myanmar Border: The Detention, Torture, and Killing of Myanmar National Aung Ko Ko in Thailand, which provides a detailed account of how four Thai Army soldiers detained a Myanmar man named Aung Ko Ko on January 12, 2024 near the Thailand-Myanmar border in Mae Sot District, Tak Province and how three of those soldiers then tortured Aung Ko Ko, who later died from his injuries. The report also highlights problems with the Thai police investigation into Aung Ko Ko’s death and the trial and conviction of a 24-year-old Myanmar national, Sirachuch, who goes by one name and was an eyewitness to the torture of Aung Ko Ko.

Eyewitness testimony to Fortify Rights and photographs of the victim’s body reviewed by Fortify Rights show that Aung Ko Ko was severely bruised and bloodied with cuts. He had dark bruises on his forehead, around both cheekbones, and on his nose. Almost his entire back was heavily bruised, and he suffered a deep cut approximately one-inch long on his right elbow.

In response to Fortify Rights’s report, on November 14, Thai army spokesman Major General Thanathip Sawangsang told Agence France Presse, "We are in the process of investigating and looking for the facts, but Thailand has always given priority and give [sic] importance to human rights, equally to everybody."

Between November 5 and 6, the U.N. reviewed Thailand’s compliance with the CAT. In its concluding observations, the U.N. Committee Against Torture expressed its “concern regarding allegations of torture and ill-treatment in the State party” and called on Thailand to “carry out prompt, impartial, thorough, efficient and independent investigations into all allegations of torture and ill-treatment.”

The right to be free from torture is non-derogable under international law, meaning that it cannot be suspended or limited under any circumstance. Thailand’s domestic law—including the Thai Constitution, the Anti-Torture Act, the Criminal Code, and the Criminal Procedure Code—also guarantee the right to life and protection from extrajudicial killings as well as protection from torture and arbitrary arrest, and the right to certain remedies to survivors of crimes.

Under the Anti-Torture Act, public officials found guilty of torture are liable to between five and 15 years in prison and a fine of between 200,000 to 500,000 Thai Baht (approximately US$6,000 to 15,000).

Thai soldiers responsible for torture are not above the law and should be brought to justice, said Fortify Rights.

“Torture is not prevented by signing treaties and passing laws alone. To end torture in Thailand, there must be no impunity for those who commit torture, regardless of their status within society or the institution they represent,” said Matthew Smith.

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