Thai Police warned not to distribute copies of court’s warrant

[GeorgeO]

And yet it would seem it is OK to publish the arrest warrant in a newspaper where many 10's of thousands more will see it

I have no doubt that the court would have also reprimanded them on that point, since that also clearly constitutes contempt of court.

Any warrant that is issued by the courts is recorded as a single document, and the record is not complete until the details of the service of the warrant are returned to the courts; thus, no copies are ever made of the document since that could complicate the procedure and potentially forewarn someone that they have been targeted for warrant service.

This is a very good precedent by the courts in Thailand, as we are unlikely to see any of these documents presented in the press in the future. Furthermore, this could be the forerunner to disposing of names and pictures of "accused" persons in the newspapers.

In the UK, where I undertook my legal studies, the solicitor of any accused person who had been named, or whose photograph had appeared, in the press, would stand before the judge and call for a dismissal on the grounds that the case against his client had been prejudiced. The court would immediately agree and dismiss the proceedings, whilst also handing down a clear reprimand to the newspaper concerned.

All that it would take here in Thailand is for an astute law firm to start pressing for dismissals on the same grounds and we could well see an end to these nonsensical finger-pointing photos in the press of people who have not yet been tried and convicted. I'm not against freeing those who are clearly engaging in criminal acts, but they should remain anonymous until they have been found guilty.

And while we're at it, what the hell are the press doing publishing photographs, names and addresses of victims? Once again, in the UK, any individual who was treated in such a way would file a suit against the newspaper concerned and receive a handsome settlement, whilst the person responsible would be out of a job...!

Kudos to the courts in Thailand, once again, for showing that they really do have some teeth...!!

Well fortunately in thailand any serious pooyai perpetrator of anything is forewarned of any warrant so he can scoot to the border.

In fact, I think the fact that there was a warrant was printed in the paper. Maybe they should be held in contempt also.

that's exactly the point in the first line of my post...!