PM office to pay 825,500 baht over summary killing, Court rules

A Thai court has ordered the Prime Minister's Office to compensate the family of a Muslim teenager summarily killed by security forces in 2012. However, no security personnel have been prosecuted.

The Administrative Court in the southern province of Songkhla on Wednesday, 2 August 2016, ordered the Prime Minister's Office to pay the Mama family 825,500 baht in compensation for the life of their late son, Furakon Mama, the Cross Cultural Foundation (CrCF) reported.

Furakon, then 18 years old, was shot dead by soldiers in the Deep South province of Yala on 7 March 2012 during the hunt for a man named ‘Abideen’, an alleged member of a Deep South insurgent group.

In 2013, Mawahaeng and Rukaya Mama, Furakon’s parents, filed a lawsuit against the Royal Thai Army, the Prime Minister’s Office, and the Royal Thai Police at the Songkhla Administrative Court over the summary killing.

After a lengthy court process, the court ruled that no evidence linked Furakon to the insurgent group as security personnel suspected.

Despite the fact that the PM’s Office was ordered to compensate the family, the court dismissed the lawsuit against the Royal Thai Army and the police and no security officers involved in the killing were charged.

The CrCF added that before the Mama family filed the lawsuit against the state agencies, the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre (SBPAC) had given the family 500,000 baht in compensation.

In Thailand’s restive Deep South, where Martial Law and the Emergency Decree have been imposed to quell insurgent groups for more than a decade, state authorities are rarely held accountable for their actions.

In most cases, families of the victims of summary execution or torture are given compensation once it is proved that their loved ones are innocent. However, it is extremely rare that security personnel are prosecuted on criminal charges.

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