27 April 2001 :

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. The open letter states that because the death penalty is an irreversible punishment, there is a strong risk that trial errors may lead to the execution of innocent people. This risk is compounded by reports of torture and ill-treatment of criminal suspects by police in order to coerce confessions.