Future Forward Party secretary-general Piyabutr Saengkanokkul said he will push for amendments to Thailand’s current trial laws at a meeting of the House Committee on Legal Affairs, Justice, and Human Rights.
Piyabutr, the committee head, believes that changes might be in order to ensure that judges are able to issue rulings independent from outside influences.
The issue came to Piyabutr’s attention after a judge shot himself in the chest during a recent court case in the south of Thailand.
The case involved five Muslim men who were allegedly involved in a shooting in Yala, an area on the border of Malaysia where clashes between Islamic separatists and government forces have routinely taken place.
The judge, Kanakorn Pianchana, who is now in the hospital recovering after the failed suicide attempt, was allegedly pushed to the brink by pressure from a regional chief judge and perhaps others to convict the five Muslim men standing trial.
After acquiting the five defendants, Khanakorn recited a legal oath before pulling out a pistol and shooting himself.
According to Facebook posts by the Future Forward Party, after Khanakorn shot himself, security there allegedly tampered with the judge’s phone and deleted posts he had made on Facebook.
Piyabutr says his committee’s amendments to trial laws in Thailand are intended to preserve the credibility of the judicial system.
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