Page 55 - รายงานการปฏิบัติตามอนุสัญญาต่อต้านการทรมานและการประติบัติ หรือการลงโทษที่โหดร้ายไร้มนุษยธรรม หรือที่ย่ำยีศักดิ์ศรี

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obtain information or confession from torture victim or third person, to

punish torture victim or third person for what he or a third person has

committed or is suspected of having committed, or for any reason based

on discrimination of any kind. Thailand, therefore, has made an

interpretative declaration that the definition of torture in Article 1 of the

Convention shall be interpreted in conformity with the provisions of the

current Criminal Code.

3. The application of the relevant provisions of the Criminal Code

mentioned in paragraph 2 above is general in nature and is not limited to

acts committed by public officials as defined in Article 1 of the Convention.

However, the Criminal Code has specific provisions on criminal liability of

public officials who commit wrongful act in Section 157, which states that

"whoever, being an official, wrongfully exercises or omits to exercise any of

his functions to the injury of any person, or dishonestly exercises or omits

to exercise any of his functions, shall be punished with an imprisonment

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term of 1 to 10 years and a fine of 2,000-20,000 baht, or both." A public
official who uses his power to commit a wrongful act, including inflicting

physical or mental harm on or torturing any person, shall be punished in

accordance with Section 157 in addition to the punishment prescribed for

such act.

4. As regards Article 2.3 of the Convention, which provides that an order

from a superior officer may not be invoked as a justification of torture,

Section 70 of the Criminal Code can be applied to give effect to the

obligation under this Article. Sections 70 stipulates that "any person who

1 Current exchange rate is approximately 32.50 baht to 1 US dollar.