On November 16, a draft royal decree on the occasion of His Majesty the King's 72nd birthday was tabled at a cabinet meeting

On November 23, Samai Pan-intara, 59, a convicted drug trafficker, was executed by machine gun at Bang Khwang prison along with 2 convicted murderers

On May 14, Obon John Khok Kroad, a Thai national, was executed in the town of Ha'ir, in Riyad Region of Saudi Arabia for killing his Saudi sponsor, Milhim Bin Sa'ud Bin Milhim Bin al-Subay'i, by bringing down a larger cleaver on his head and other parts of his body during a row

On January 4, Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan requested Grey Davis, the new California Governor, to commute the death sentence for Jaturun Siripongs, 43, a Thai sentenced to death for a 1981 robbery and double murder in Orange County

On August 4, Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai appealed by letter to Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Van Khai to spare the first Thai national sentenced to death on a fraud charge

On September 28, Visanu Chokthavee Sarp had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment

On November 11, a Thai man was among 36 people executed in a fresh crackdown on crime in Guangdong Province, southern China

On October 15, Bahari Isa, 40, from Narathiwat, southern Thailand, was found guilty by a Malaysian High Court of trafficking in 38

On September 21, the Criminal Court in Bangkok indicated that Thailand is unlikely to extradite Yoshimi Tanaka, 51, a former member of the now-defunct Red Army faction within 1999

On March 26, a meeting of the Justice Coordination Committee chaired by Justice Minister Suthas Ngernmuen was held to consider the proposal by the Corrections Department that lethal injections replace gunshots as a method of execution

On April 27, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence imposed on Thawee Phuttachan, 42, a former Chiang Rai MP, for having paid, between December 1994 and April 1996, people to kill Saengchai Sunthornwat, director of the Mass Communications Organization of Thailand

On June 10, the Supreme Court upheld the verdicts of the Criminal Court and the Appeals Court in sentencing Sompong Boonrith and Samak Toopbuchakorn for the abduction and murder in 1986 of Sherry Ann Duncan, an Amerasian girl who was then 16 years old

On June 21, Phan Saithong, 34, and Samruay Tosuk, 41, were executed by machine gun at Bang Khwang prison

On September 24, Visanu Chokthavee Sarp, 42, a Thai businessman convicted of cheating a state firm of about US$176,000 assets by the Vietnamese Appeal Court on July 2, had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment following intervention by the Thai Government

Also on September 24, Criminal Court judges sentenced to death three drug traffickers, Napol "Lao-U" sae-Ten, Lao-koh sae-Yang and Lojoi sae-Li linked to Li Yun-chung, the high-profile suspect whose bail-jumping, arrest in Burma and subsequent extradition to the United States caused a diplomatic frenzy a few years ago

On November 4, the High Court sentenced to death Helen Ayoromi, 30, a businesswoman from the Republic of Benin

On July 20, Noppadol Khaektao, 30, was executed at Bang Khwang prison

On July 7, Decha Suwannasuk, 38, was executed by machine gun at Bang Khwang prison for raping and killing his 4-year-old daughter in July 1997

On October 8, 5 convicts were executed in one day at Bang Kwang prison

In December, Israeli Foreign Minister David Levi tried to persuade the Thai authorities not to execute two Israelis - Yosef Ohana and Avraham Huri - who were sentenced to death in 1997 for trying to smuggle 2

In August, a leading member of the Opposition, Sanoh Thienthong, proposed that the Government impose capital punishment on those producing or possessing narcotics, as the most effective way to wipe out the problem

On December 26, Boonsong Nuannim and Chaiya Kaewcharoen, both 25, were condemned to death by the Criminal Court for conspiring to murder Thawil Kaewchao, a vendor, and rob him of his gold necklace and Buddha amulet worth Bt40,000 ($1,092) in front of Ramkhamhaeng University on March 10, 1996

On January 19, Deputy Interior Minister Vatana Asavahame in response to an appeal for abolition made by Amnesty International said: "Capital punishment is still needed in order to deter criminals from committing crimes, and the Corrections Department is studying changing executions by gunfire to the administration of lethal injections

On February 5, Mao Du-ngae, 20, and Bang, 19, 2 illegal Burmese immigrants who were initially given the death penalty by the Thon Buri Criminal Court, had their sentences commuted to life following their confession and co-operation throughout the entire prosecution process

The Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions said that she was dismayed by information she had received indicating that the death penalty remains legal in Thailand for drug trafficking which by international standards is not considered to be a "most serious crime" (E/CN

Thailand resumed executions in 1996 after a break of 9 years