Thai Undertaker Jailed For 20 Years For Hiding 2,000 Foetuses

[webfact]

Thai undertaker jailed for hiding 2,000 foetuses

BANGKOK, January 27, 2011 (AFP) - A Thai court has jailed an undertaker for 20 years for helping to hide 2,002 illegally aborted foetuses discovered in a Bangkok temple last year, an official said Thursday.

Suchart Phumee was initially sentenced to two months for each of the corpses after pleading guilty to two charges of concealing the bodies and assisting illegal abortion clinics, said state prosecutor Rucha Krairiksha.

The cumulative sentences amounted to 333 years.

But the 38-year-old, who worked at the Phai Ngern Buddhist temple where the corpses were hidden, saw his sentence lowered to 20 years, ten years for each charge, the maximum penalty under Thai law.

A second suspect, Suthep Chabangbon, denied the charges.

"The court sentenced him to 20 years and asked the prosecutor to refile the case of another suspect, who retracted his guilty plea, in the next seven days," Rucha said.

The foetuses, wrapped in plastic bags, were uncovered over several days in November in the temple's three mortuary rooms.

The grisly discoveries shocked Thailand and highlighted the scale of illegal abortions in a country where the procedure is only allowed when delivery would harm the mother or the pregnancy is the result of rape.

Police said some of the corpses had been stored for more than a year.

They would normally have disposed of by placing them with the remains of people being cremated, but the furnaces had broken and the number of bodies had built up while repair work was carried out.

Buddhist temples often store bodies in specially refrigerated areas.

Police have since raided suspected illegal abortion clinics, while the government has suggested banning sex with girls under 20 and lawmakers have proposed relaxing legislation.

Kamheang Chaturachinda, president of the Women's Health and Reproductive Rights Foundation of Thailand, has said each year up to 400,000 Thai women undergo abortions carried by untrained people in unhygienic conditions.

According to Chaturachinda, a former president of the Royal Thai College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, about 12 to 15 percent of them are teenagers.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2011-01-27

[morejunk]

If the undertaker got 20 years it would be appropriate for the abortionist to be drawn and quartered in front of Central World. Twenty years is an outrageous sentence. Probably not the smartest dude on the block. Two years would have been plenty a single charge of "general stupidity" or perhaps medical treatment for gross mental incompetence.

[TAWP]

I understand the point of not giving a huge discount (example: not sentencing a burglar ring with 500+ break-ins to 1.5 year instead of 1 year in jail [as given for just one break-in], as pretty much happen in my country) just because many crimes happen at the same time, so to speak.

That is the thing, it might look like a lot of time...but shouldn't someone partaking in organized and lengthy sessions of crime surely be punished harder?

We can argue the merit of punishing him for the event that occurred, but until the law is revoked he still - knowingly - committed a crime 2002 times. What kind of excuse could there be?

[marquess]

20 years and a certain person responsible for the death of 9 people is unlikely to do a single day in jail, the judge sounds like the criminal in this case.

[webfact]

Man jailed over grisly foetus affair

By Kesinee Taengkhieo

The Nation

An undertaker's assistant at Wat Phai Ngern in Bangkok was yesterday sentenced to 8,008 months in prison for conspiring to destroy and conceal 2,002 human foetuses.

The Criminal Court then halved the sentence on Suchart Phumee, 39, because of his confession. Suchart will serve no more than 20 years, the maximum jail sentence under Thai law.

The public prosecutor will resubmit the case against a second defendant within seven days. Undertaker Suthep Chabangbon, 47, initially admitted to the crime but later retracted his confession.

The indictment said that between November 1, 2009 and November 13, 2010 the two men accepted the foetuses from former nurse Lanchakorn Janthamanas, who ran an illegal abortion clinic in Bangkok's Nong Khaem district.

The two men confessed to the crime on January 7 but Suthep later retracted it and denied any wrongdoing.

Public prosecutor Reucha Kraireuk said he would resubmit the case against Suthep, while Suchart could now appeal the sentence.

Suthep's elder brother told reporters that Suthep was innocent and was forced to sign the confession, even though he was illiterate.

-- The Nation 2011-01-28

[siampolee]

20 years for concealing cadavers !!

Yet a double murderer who bludgeoned his partner to death and is still awaiting trial for the brutal murder of a young tourist gets but twenty five years.

Indeed the land of make believe.

[Sydebolle]

What kind of animals are roaming free in this country?

[phupaman]

Hi All.

I hope the same judge presides over the red shirt leaders.

phupaman

[khaowong1]

What about the temple where they were stored? You think nobody there knew anything about what was going on?

[doggie888888]

Poor guy, he is merely the scapegoat for Thai society's inability to deal with the abortion issue. I bet there has been 2000 more abortions that have occurred since he was caught...god only knows how these are being disposed off since hiding them in temples is no longer an option.

[Payboy]

He can share a cell with the tollway booth attendant who got 50(?) years for skimming, while Dechawiwat roams free to do another execution.

[rafish]

I understand the point of not giving a huge discount (example: not sentencing a burglar ring with 500+ break-ins to 1.5 year instead of 1 year in jail [as given for just one break-in], as pretty much happen in my country) just because many crimes happen at the same time, so to speak.

That is the thing, it might look like a lot of time...but shouldn't someone partaking in organized and lengthy sessions of crime surely be punished harder?

We can argue the merit of punishing him for the event that occurred, but until the law is revoked he still - knowingly - committed a crime 2002 times. What kind of excuse could there be?

He was only the delivery boy, not the executioner. Lets ask this question: How long was the incinerator broken down? As he stored the remains in the WAT for a very long time, just why was there not a Monk who noticed these bags building up adjacent to the incinerator? Next question: when will a doctor or practitioner be prosecuted for the abortions?

[spiderleghead]

What about the temple where they were stored? You think nobody there knew anything about what was going on?

remember the monks are above the law, unless they are very poor and the temple is not making lots of money.

obviously it was not the monks fault for not asking about the putrid stench that was coming out of the store room, or not their fault for not getting the cremation furnace working witht eh huge amounts of cash they get every week, not their fault that pan tip has run out of porn...

[EarthAlien]

"Suthep's elder brother told reporters that Suthep was innocent and was forced to sign the confession, even though he was illiterate."

A "Patsy" was required to take the blame and this poor guy being illiterate fitted the bill perfectly.

If he is illiterate makes you wonder how he could be assigned such a position of responsibility in the first place!

[GarryP]

Double standards?

[TAWP]

I understand the point of not giving a huge discount (example: not sentencing a burglar ring with 500+ break-ins to 1.5 year instead of 1 year in jail [as given for just one break-in], as pretty much happen in my country) just because many crimes happen at the same time, so to speak.

That is the thing, it might look like a lot of time...but shouldn't someone partaking in organized and lengthy sessions of crime surely be punished harder?

We can argue the merit of punishing him for the event that occurred, but until the law is revoked he still - knowingly - committed a crime 2002 times. What kind of excuse could there be?

He was only the delivery boy, not the executioner. Lets ask this question: How long was the incinerator broken down? As he stored the remains in the WAT for a very long time, just why was there not a Monk who noticed these bags building up adjacent to the incinerator? Next question: when will a doctor or practitioner be prosecuted for the abortions?

He doesn't need to be the master criminal or 'head guilty' to be sentenced. The doctors will be handled too.

[cup-O-coffee]

As another poster wrote; "You can't make this stuff up!"

This boggles the imagination and I can not decide whether to laugh, cry, or crap my pants!

It is not that I am saying Thailand is exclusive to these problems. What I am saying is that Thailand's problem solving skills, and the methods and means they engage in to justify their problem solving skills makes them about as credible as 9 year old children in denial, with chocolate chip cookie crumbs on their lips.

The devaluation of human life begins with ignorant people. Turning pregnancies into inconveniences and treating those inconveniences like unsightly mole removal is right about where we are at now in our evolution.

Let's forget how people get pregnant. Let's forget the mentality and lack of self-discipline it takes to train humans to earn that title and keep the term "human" humane. Let's give everyone rights and turn all irresponsibility into a money making cottage industry so we can sweep any inconvenience under the rug. Lower all standards of living to the lowest common denominator, and worship mediocrity. Corporations and banks are running our societies today. Forget governments and forget the masses. Religion? A corporation! Government? A corporation. Banks and treasuries? Corporations. The people are the carbon by-product that make these stories focus on them, instead of the "corporations" that generate all the misery in the world.

Humans are breeding themselves to death, and this is simply a symptom of life at its fullest point of stagnation. The beginning and ending of life has lost its sanctity and it won't be long until the middle becomes the target, because it is clear to me that "corporations" are describing me as a carbon footprint!

The story is unimportant and not to the point, because it is a symptom of a much greater ill that today's authority figures lack the courage to broach. They do not want to lose their corporate funding and support because you do not turn on your own kind.

Sorry to digress, but I feel there is more here than just describing a symptom and ignoring the disease.

[jfchandler]

Leaving aside any person's individual views on the morality/legality of abortion....

20 years for this guy is an absurd sentence.... He didn't perform the abortions.... He didn't run the clinics where the abortions were done... He was a minor bit player in the whole thing...

I personally think Thailand should liberalize its abortion laws... But even if they haven't as yet or don't, the length of this guy's sentence is so out of whack with what real serious criminals and killers typically get that it makes a mockery of the system.

As another poster noted above, this guy's taking the fall for society's inability to deal with the problem of unwanted pregnancies on a vast scale.

It's sad, and it makes one wonder what's going thru the minds of the public prosecutors when they pursue cases like this... Is any sense of fair justice totally missing?

[DP25]

I personally think Thailand should liberalize its abortion laws... But even if they haven't as yet or don't, the length of this guy's sentence is so out of whack with what real serious criminals and killers typically get that it makes a mockery of the system.

They're more liberal than what is made out in the papers, there are many legal and cheap abortion clinics in Thailand, the 'health' requirement for abortion is very low and anyone can easily get one. Which makes it even more ridiculous punishing this man for disposing of these bodies to this extent. I would have thought most people would think it's better to cremate them in a temple with religious services then burn/bury them in a ditch somewhere like they could have done. This sentence is absurd.

[cup-O-coffee]

I personally think Thailand should liberalize its abortion laws... But even if they haven't as yet or don't, the length of this guy's sentence is so out of whack with what real serious criminals and killers typically get that it makes a mockery of the system.

They're more liberal than what is made out in the papers, there are many legal and cheap abortion clinics in Thailand, the 'health' requirement for abortion is very low and anyone can easily get one. Which makes it even more ridiculous punishing this man for disposing of these bodies to this extent. I would have thought most people would think it's better to cremate them in a temple with religious services then burn/bury them in a ditch somewhere like they could have done. This sentence is absurd.

Yes, he is the one who is taking the fall for the faults and crimes of others, who get to continue with impunity. Nothing new there. It has been going on for centuries.

Legalizing and liberalizing abortion? What makes you think that if this were done that the poor would not still be on the outside looking in?

Abortion is legalized in the USA (for example) yet unwanted pregnancies are still going on in unacceptable proportions; notwithstanding that even one unwanted pregnancy should be the limit for labeling this statistic as unacceptable.

So, again: let's legalize abortion and liberalize it in Thailand, and watch the insurance companies, the doctors, the clinics and everyone else turn it into a money making cottage industry, and leave the real demographic where the stats are the highest on the outside. Do you think these legal abortions would be for free?

Furthermore, if you are not going to educate and enforce the illiterate public (and unruly, reckless, feral teens) into more self-disciplined behavior, you will simply be re-creating the mess that the USA is now experiencing with their inner city youth, illegal immigrants, and the like.

This view is about as unstable as saying it is OK to smoke, because you can get a heart transplant when the ticker goes out.

Why not just stop smoking if you don't want your ticker to go out? Translated: why not have every teen and young adult take pills with their daily meals and prevent the obvious (stats and links not needed)

If taking a pill is against religious belief, then bill the religious leaders for their acolyte's sinning and backsliding. After all, they are the ones who protest birth control, therefore they should foot the bill for their believers lack of faith.

If taking a pill is against a woman's sense of principle, because she blames the man for not being responsible and wearing a condom, then bill the woman when she can not prove that she did not commit premeditated, consensual sex, and willingly choose not to take a pill and protect her body from getting pregnant. Instead she went ahead and got pregnant, "because the man was irresponsible and did not want to wear a condom". Yeah right! That's about as effective as "I was only following orders!"

Evolution selected the woman to be the one to get pregnant, and therefore logic dictates that she be the one who holds the primary responsibility for how her body reacts to her behavior. Preventative measures should not be obstructed by idiotic religion that won't cover the cost of backsliding members, or women with unstable principles, who won't take charge of their bodies before they get to the point of having an abortion.

Take a pill.

But no! It is far better for weak politicians to make laws to justify irresponsibility, penalize those who are not to blame, and let people do anything they want if it feels good, It is far better, because corporations can then form unholy alliances and bleed the irresponsible people for more money, and have them give up more freedoms.

Great thinking.

Edited January 28, 2011 by cup-O-coffee

[GarryP]

They're more liberal than what is made out in the papers, there are many legal and cheap abortion clinics in Thailand, the 'health' requirement for abortion is very low and anyone can easily get one. Which makes it even more ridiculous punishing this man for disposing of these bodies to this extent. I would have thought most people would think it's better to cremate them in a temple with religious services then burn/bury them in a ditch somewhere like they could have done. This sentence is absurd.

I am suprised that this has not been picked up on before. To quote DP25 "there are many legal and cheap abortion clinics in Thailand", and as a result there should be no need to resort to illegal clinics. The person seeking the abortion would have lie a bit though, i.e. give an acceptable reason why an abortion is required. They basically accept what they are told and do not verify such information.

[DP25]

http://www.pda.or.th/eng/fp.asp

"PDA has been involved in pregnancy termination services during a time in which the legality of such action was narrowly interpreted by the government; however, by the end of 2005, PDA and a group of physicians managed to convince the Medical Council of Thailand to accept new medical regulations concerning pregnancy termination on physical as well as mental health grounds."

[asiawatcher]

What about the temple where they were stored? You think nobody there knew anything about what was going on?

Yes 2,000 bodies of even small size take up sizable areas. Not exactly out of sight out of mind?

[jfchandler]

Yes, this is an interesting issue....

Of course, the original news report above says:

highlighted the scale of illegal abortions in a country where the procedure is only allowed when delivery would harm the mother or the pregnancy is the result of rape.

I too was under the impression that abortions could be had on demand, pretty much. But I've never been clear whether the places doing so were operating legally or, as so many things there, not legally but the authorities looking the other way.

So what exactly would a pregnant woman have to say to a doctor in order to obtain a "legal" abortion?

And more particularly, if a pregnant woman wants an abortion, can she obtain one at one of the established, hopefully reasonable well-run public or private hospitals? Or we're talking the fly-by-night shophouse type clinics?

http://www.pda.or.th/eng/fp.asp

"PDA has been involved in pregnancy termination services during a time in which the legality of such action was narrowly interpreted by the government; however, by the end of 2005, PDA and a group of physicians managed to convince the Medical Council of Thailand to accept new medical regulations concerning pregnancy termination on physical as well as mental health grounds."

[oldsailor35]

Hi All.

I hope the same judge presides over the red shirt leaders.

phupaman

And the airport terrorists

[RAZZELL]

Poor sod

Whilst the girl who killed 9 on the motorway walks...oh yeah...she had money...

RAZZ

Edited January 28, 2011 by RAZZELL