The Supreme Court on Wednesday morning ruled not to allow a trial with additional witnesses, submitted by the plaintiff in the case of the disappearance of Somchai Neelapaijit, a Muslim human rights lawyer.

It has been more than ten years since Somchai was last seen on Ramkhamhaeng Road in eastern Bangkok, when he was forced by five police officers, the defendants, to get out of his car and into the defendants’ car.

10 years ago, Somchai was representing Muslim separatist suspects. He later found out that his clients had been tortured and forced to confess while in the hands of the Crime Suppression Division (CSD). Somchai later exposed the torture allegations by CSD police and tried to bring the officers involved to justice.

On 12 March, 2004, a few days after Somchai exposed the torture allegations, he was forcibly disappeared by five police officers, some of whom were identified by Somchai’s clients as the torturers.

Somchai Neelapaijit

The five police officers were accused of robbery and coercion. One of the most compelling pieces of evidence is a copy of the mobile phone records of the five defendants. On 12 March 2004, the day that Somchai disappeared, there were 75 phone calls between the five police officers, which was very unusual in comparison with the record of calls on the days before and after 12 March, which show very few contacts among the group. The phone records also show that the group had followed Somchai since the morning until his disappearance. Interestingly, the records show that one of the defendants also called a person at the Prime Minister’s Office after the incident on Ramkhamhaeng Road and several other numbers which were censored by thick black lines.

Since the police obtained the evidence unofficially and no officials from the telephone service provider testified in court, the Court of First Instance dismissed the evidence, saying that it was unreliable. Somchai’s family, as co-plaintiffs, had wished to have the telephone company and the police officer who obtained the evidence testify as prosecution witnesses to confirm the authenticity of the telephone logs so they submitted the request to the Supreme Court.

Pratubjit Neelapaijit, human rights activist, academic and daughter of Somchai Neelapaijit

Pratubjit Neelapaijit, daughter of Somchai, said she and her mother, Angkhana Neelapaijit, lost courage after hearing the ruling. The ruling means that no key evidence will be presented and that the allegations against the defendant will look weak.

Pratubjit also condemned the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), which oversees the case, for lacking the political motivation to find evidence. “The DSI should have submitted the official phone records or have the telephone company testify in court, but they didn’t.”

“The lack of this official phone record also means we cannot bring to justice the high-level officials who masterminded this.” The Court of First Instance in January 2006 found only the first defendant, Pol Major Ngern Tongsuk, guilty of coercion, which is a relatively minor offence. He was released on bail. On the same day, then Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra spoke to the media, saying that he knew that Somchai was dead and that state officials caused his death. Ngern was identified by a witness as the person who pushed Somchai into the car. Ngern was one of the team investigating the weapons robbery case and was identified as an abuser of the Muslim suspects in the torture case.

In September 2008, Ngern went missing. However, the DSI told the family recently that Ngern has not disappeared, but has escaped to a neighbouring country, according to Pratubjit.

The Appeal Court in March 2011 acquitted all the defendants due to insufficient evidence. It also ruled that Somchai’s wife, Angkhana Neelapaijit, could not act on her husband’s behalf as joint plaintiff, reasoning that it could not be confirmed that Somchai had been murdered or injured to the extent that he was unable to act for himself. In other words, the Appeal Court required evidence of the body of a victim of enforced disappearance before ruling that he was dead. Thailand has not yet criminalized enforced disappearance. This means the current law only recognizes a murder case when there is a dead body.

A DSI officer has told Angkhana that Somchai was tortured to death at a place near the CSD office. The body was burned and the ashes were scattered in the Maeklong River.