The death penalty could be an effective weapon against corruption, which has become a norm in Thailand, Constitutional Court judge Amorn Raksasat said

Amorn Wanichwiwatana, a criminologist at the Faculty of Political Science of Chulalongkorn University, said several policies broached by the government are poorly conceived and impractical

A proposal to televise the execution of convicted drug traffickers may be shelved, the PM's Office minister who floated it said

Reporters will get a closer look at executions and more access to death-row convicts, including a close-up look at their warm corpses, if PM's Office Minister General Thamarak Isarangura gets his way

Executions of major drug traders could soon be televised live as a deterrent to other traffickers, PM's Office Minister Thammarak Issarangkura na Ayuthaya said

The get-tough campaign against drugs could be paying off in Thailand, said the Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister responsible for supervising drug suppression

Amnesty activists should consider the dangers of drugs to society before begging for mercy for drug convicts on death row, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said

Death row at Bang Khwang maximum security prison is to be expanded to take on more drug convicts, the Corrections Department said

The Criminal Court needed only three months to hand down death sentences against 19 convicted drug traffickers because the court had been trying the four cases nonstop, Criminal Court Chief Justice Sombat Tiewissaret said

Foreign prisoners' chances of clemency under a Royal Pardon from Thailand's King may have ended under a tougher government stance against drug traffickers

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra confirmed the government's intention to deny drug traffickers on death row the right to request a royal pardon

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, following His Majesty the King's comment in favour of harsh punishment for drug traffickers, said that there will be no more royal pardons in drug cases

Hands off Cain said in an article published in the "Bankong Post" it was horrified at Thailand's new policy of making an example of drug traffickers by executing them publicly

Following the execution of five drug traffickers Amnesty International's Secretary General wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister of Thailand urging him to use his executive powers to issue a moratorium on the use of the death penalty

Mark Tarmthai, a philosophy lecturer at Chulalongkorn University, speaking at a seminar on the death sentence and drug problems organised by Amnesty International (Thailand) and the Union of Civil Liberty, said the government should set up a committee to study whether capital punishment was the best method to solve drug-related problems before deciding whether or not the death penalty should be abolished

And English Bangkok Post reader, Leslie Sturges, said "I share the disgust of right-thinking people across the world at the appalling crime of drug trafficking but I am sad to learn that four more offenders were executed by firing squad on April 18

Human rights groups in Thailand started a petition to get the government to stop publicising executions of drug traffickers and murderers, describing the act as inhumane

Six more convicted drug traffickers will be executed soon, Interior Minister Purachai Piemsomboon said

The execution by firing squad of five convicts on April 18 drew a sharp rebuke from local and international human rights groups, who described the death penalty as a violent and misguided means of solving crime

Bangkok Post published this editorial: "The sudden execution of five condemned prisoners was meant as a clear message to drug traffickers that they will not be tolerated by this government

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said capital punishment was a convincing deterrent against drug trafficking despite human rights groups called it legalised violence

A Bangkok Post reader, Chris Mann, said that far from abolishing the death penalty to follow UN guidelines, the government should consider extending it to cover rapists as well

Bangkok Senator Chirmsak Pinthong said that capital punishment should be abolished, as it was not a practical solution to deter drug trafficking

Three convicted drug traffickers and producers, two Chinese and one Thai, will be executed before the Songkran [New Year] festival begins, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said

The government supports the execution of drug inmates on death row after they have been tried in three courts, said Interior Minister Purachai Piemsomboon

The Bangkok Post editorial criticised Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's proposal for more liberal use of the death penalty saying "it will not deter drug smuggling

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, as part of his declared "war on drugs," said he was considering amending related regulations to expedite the execution process for convicted drug traffickers

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra stressed a need for the death penalty against drug producers and traffickers

The government is considering a move to speed up the execution of drug offenders by eliminating the appeals process for Royal clemency

Corrections Department director-general Siva Saengmanee said that relatives of condemned prisoners may be invited to witness lethal injections

Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai's Cabinet endorsed a government-sponsored bill to change the country's method of capital punishment, replacing the traditional gunning-down of convicts on death row with more humane lethal injections

The High Court of Singapore dismissed an appeal by a Thai national, who was sentenced to death in August 2001, for the murder of a taxi driver

A Thai national has been sentenced to death for murder in the US by the superior court of Arizona, the Foreign Ministry said

A Thai cabinet minister sent a letter to Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid asking for clemency for two compatriots, Namsong Sirlak, and Saelaw Praset

Welder Saeng-Un Udom, 22, a Thai national was sentenced by the Singapore High Court to hang for murdering Mr Weerasak Suebban, a fellow worker after an argument on June 23, 2000

An opinion poll conducted by Assumption University found that the death penalty in Thailand has the support of 88

The Criminal Court sentenced a Pakistani to death for possessing about 7

Three Ghanaian drug dealers were sentenced to death by hanging at the Klong Prem prison in Bangkok, Thailand

A Briton faces the death penalty in Thailand after being accused of involvement in a heroin-smuggling ring

The Supreme Court of Thailand postponed till 2002 the consideration of the appeal of Ukrainian citizen Viktoriya Mamontova, sentenced to death for smuggling drugs on August 17, 2001

Two Chinese Haw tribesmen, Ar-hong sae Soo, 27, and Ar-sing sae Lee, 28, and a Burmese drug dealer, Ar-liang sae Chern, 28, were sentenced to death by the Criminal Court

The Thonburi Criminal Court sentenced to death a Ukrainian woman for having 1

The Criminal Court sentenced to death two foreigners and a Thai for trafficking heroin

The Criminal Court sentenced to death two Singaporeans convicted of attempting to smuggle heroin out of the country and related charges

Andaila Mohamad, 40; Wahab Medina, 40; Chab Abdullanaf Umah, 27, all Ghanaian nationals were sentenced to death on drug related charges

A first-year student from Kasetsart University, Jitra, was held hostage and killed at knife-point by an amphetamine-driven abductor

The Secretary General of the Council of Europe Walter Schwimmer asked Thailand's authorities to take all possible measures to lift the capital punishment meted out to the Ukrainian citizen Viktoria Mamontova

A draft amendment bill to change the method of execution from shooting to lethal injection is ready to go before parliament for approval

The Thai Cabinet recently resolved that sentences of execution or life imprisonment for under 18 year olds shall be commuted to 15 years' imprisonment

Legislation setting penalties for possession and trafficking in methampethamines was overwhelmingly approved by the House

The Senate panel on justice and human rights proposed banning members of the public from carrying guns

A cabinet screening committee approved a draft bill to change the method of capital punishment from firing squad to lethal injection

Forcing 63 Burmese immigrants to return home could put their lives in danger, said Wasant Panich, a member of Thailand's National Human Rights Committee, as authorities revealed a plan to send the immigrants back by leaving them at a border village in Burma known to be friendly to the Rangoon government

Four convicted drug felons, including a former policeman, were sentenced to death in two separate cases before the provincial court

Three men were sentenced to death in Bangkok after being convicted of possessing 400,000 methamphetamine tablets with intent to sell

The Criminal Court sentenced three people to death for possessing 198,000 amphetamine pills with intent to traffic

Two men were sentenced to death for possessing 113 kilograms of heroin with intent to sell

The Southern Bangkok Criminal Court sentenced to death Kang Duay, 40, Nee Khaewa, 27, and Dee Bai, 19, after they were convicted on charges of possessing 60,000 methamphetamine pills with intent to sell

The number of convicts on death row has risen dramatically to 326, the most there has ever been since the Corrections Department was set up

Four men and a woman were sentenced to death in the South Bangkok Criminal Court for smuggling methamphetamine pills across the border in Chiang Rai to sell at fuel stations in central provinces

A Thai court sentenced 14 drug dealers, including three women, in four separate trials, to death despite criticism from international human right organizations that the court has become an assembly line of death

Thailand's criminal court sentenced 19 drug dealers to death, the largest number ever handed the maximum penalty in one day

A police general denied that special death squads were planning to kill 1000 drug traffickers this year, and had already sent "350 to hell

Kittisak Wongchan and brother-in-law Danai Wongrian were sentenced to death by the Chiang Rai provincial court for possessing approximately one million methamphetamine pills and 20 kilogrammes of heroin

Pong Ketsiri, 64, was executed by a firing squad in a Bangkok prison after being convicted of smuggling 275lb of heroin into Thailand

A convicted drug trafficker was executed by a firing squad at the Bangkwang Maximum Security Prison, raising to six the number of drug convicts executed since Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's government took office in February

The government executed five condemned prisoners, four of them major drug dealers, at the Bang Kwang maximum security prison and for the first time, televised their final hours up to the point the blindfolds were put on

Bunchoo Kesee, his wife Soei Khuan and Montha Khuan were sentenced to death by the provincial court in Trat for possessing speed pills with intent to sell

Mua Wongsorn, 60, and Yai Busanaree, 48, were sentenced to death after being convicted of trafficking in 80,000 speed pills in Chiang Rai in 1999

Li Nong Chermeu, 24, and Buatong Santhi, 42, were sentenced to death for possessing 70,000 speed pills with intent to sell

Chiew-ming sae Chow and Suvit Lachan, two drug dealers were sentenced to death for possession of 94,000 speed pills for sale

Speaking at the UN Commission on Human Rights during the vote on the resolution on the death penalty, a representative of Thailand said that his country had conducted a public hearing on the question of the death penalty in 1999

A riot following a failed jailbreak by death row inmates at Narathiwat provincial prison left five inmates dead and two others severely injured

The Bangkok Southern Criminal Court sentenced a convicted Thai drug trader to death and two Burmese to life imprisonment for possessing almost two million amphetamine tablets with intent to sell

A woman was sentenced to life in jail for possessing methamphetamine pills with intent to sell

Death row is so overcrowded with the most inmates it has ever seen that more jail cells are being made available to separate prisoners and keep them from conspiring with each other, the Corrections Department said

The Criminal Court sentenced 12 men and five women to death on speed smuggling charges in six separate drug cases

Ampai Saiphoo, 26, was executed by a pistol shot

Khwan-on Natthaphon, 27, Was sentenced to death by the High Court after being found guilty of murdering taxi driver Ong Huay Dee

Somkid Namkaew, a 25-year-old Thai man, was executed for trafficking in methamphetamines

According to Section 31 of the Constitution, "A person shall enjoy rights and liberties in his/her life and person

It is never known in advance when a death warrant is to be issued, and executions are performed only once in a while

Of the 371 sentenced to death, 247 were convicted on drugs charges

Capital punishment sentences are mostly commuted under Royal clemency