Royally-pardoned prisoners to be soon freed

BANGKOK, December 13 (TNA) - Over 30,000 prisoners, qualified for a royal pardon granted by His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun, will be released over the next four months, with the first batch of them to be freed later this week. Corrections Department Director-General Kobkiat Kasiwat told journalists on Tuesday that most of the first group are inmates with serious illnesses and those whose remaining jail terms are less than two years. One of a high-profile prisoner expected to be also freed is Chuvit Kamolvisit, a former political party leader and a massage parlour tycoon, who was sentenced to a two year-jail term in January 2016 for demolishing bars and shops in Sukhumvit in 2003. Meanwhile, Justice Ministry Spokesman Thawatchai Thaikiew said the rest of the qualified prisoners will be considered discreetly and the processes will be completed within 120 days, after the royal pardon was issued on December 10. The spokesman, who is also Deputy Permanent Secretary for Justice, stated that each province will set up a committee comprising of the provincial governor and judges of the provincial Judicial Office or military prosecutors, to consider inmates who are qualified for the royal pardon. The spokesman noted that eligible inmates to be considered are first-graded prisoners or those who have served one-third of their sentences, prisoners with disabilities or serious illnesses and lese majeste prisoners, while rapists, public fraudsters or inmates of drug charges are not qualified. According to the spokesman, measures have already put in place to monitor freed inmates and to provide them with vocational skills training so that they would not break the law again. (TNA)