Rape-And-Murder Convicts Must Face Death: Netizens

[Flashermac]

CONCERNED NETIZENS have called for mandatory death sentence for rape-and-murder crimes, in an angry and swift reaction to the tragic rape and murder on Sunday night of a 13-year-old victim by a State Railway of Thailand employee on a moving train.

 

Administrators and members of many Facebook pages have launched campaigns to rally public support for the legal-amendment drive, while similar attempts were under way on the online petition service www.change.org even before Sunday's tragedy.

 

A Facebook account with more than 6,000 members has arranged a public gathering in front of Siam Paragon shopping mall in downtown Bangkok at 11am on Saturday. Attendees have been urged to dress in black in memory of the victim, an unnamed eighth-grade student identified by the nickname of Kaem, who studied at a Nonthaburi school.

 

The campaign site www.change.org had drawn more than 21,000 signatures out of a total of 50,000 required to push for a legal amendment after a rape-and-murder case in Bangkok last year.

 

Some other activities on Change.org include campaigns to ensure that producers of television series do not play up scripts about sexual offences against females in their shows, and stricter supervision in this area by the broadcast regulator.

 

The reaction on social media and a public rally are a rare swift response in Thailand over a sexual crime. The response is comparable to the uproar in India last year over the gang rape of a woman on a bus, who was later thrown off the moving vehicle.

 

Apart from seeking mandatory execution of rape-and-murder convicts, the campaigners also called on the judicial authorities not to pardon or commute prison terms of convicted sexual offenders.

 

The Criminal Code sentences rapists to jail terms from four to 20 years in general cases of rape, while aggravated offences in which the rape victim is killed on purpose or where death is caused through violent sex acts are punishable by death. The campaigners, however, want rape-and-murder convicts to face the death penalty without exception.

 

A number of female celebrities posted messages on their social-media sites offering their condolences to the victim and her family while joining awareness campaigns and the drive for legal amendment.

 

Former Miss Thailand Panadda Wongphudee issued a statement calling on sympathisers to supply photocopies of their identity cards to push for the amendment to increase penalties for convicted sex offenders.

 

The Women and Men Progressive Movement Foundation demanded that SRT governor Prapat Chongsanguan take responsibility and resign. Director Chadet Chaowilai said the crime was not acceptable and would cause great concern among Thai and foreign passengers.

 

The StopDrink organisation said the sale of alcohol on the trains was deemed one of the reasons behind nuisances, quarrels, accidents and sexual violations that affected general passengers, citing a survey it conducted late last year on 1,160 respondents. A large majority of the respondents backed a ban on alcohol consumption on trains and the sale of liquor at train stations, said Theera Watcharapranee.

 

Child-rights activist Wallop Tangkhananurak voiced his support for heavier penalties. He also opposed pardon or reduced prison sentences for convicted sex offenders on auspicious occasions. He said the SRT could give no excuses for such an incident and in other countries senior officials would have handed in their resignations.

 

The National Council for Peace and Order has assigned military and police units to take care of security measures on trains. NCPO spokesman Colonel Winthai Suvari said that although yesterday's meeting did not discuss the murder in particular, the junta leadership expressed concern over the issue.

 

 

http://www.nationmul...s-30238074.html

[King Kung]

A trial to establish guilt or innocence would be a nice first step.

 

The campaigners, however, want rape-and-murder convicts to face the death penalty without exception.

 

I'm afraid this will have the opposite effect. Juries will be reluctant to find defendants guilty if they know death is the absolute, unmitigated result.

 

Justice and emotion are like oil and water.

[Flashermac]

Woman raped on train 13 years ago attacks SRT governor

 

 

A woman who was raped by a train official 13 years ago has written an open letter to attack the current governor of State Railway of Thailand, Prapat Chongsanguan, for saying that there had never been any serious crime on the train until this month.

 

"How can he fail to notice that a rape happened on an SRT train before this?" she said.

 

 

http://www.nationmul...e-30238129.html

[Flashermac]

Train rape victim writes to junta

 

 

A WOMAN who was rapted by a State Railway of Thailand (SRT) employee on a train 13 years ago has sent an open letter to the junta.

 

When she read the news report in Greece, she collapsed in distress.

 

After she regained her consciousness, she began to write an open letter that was finally sent to Thai media.

 

"Why did it happen again?" she asked.

 

Her letter is addressed to the chief of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) and the SRT.

 

"I am now a living dead," she lamented.

 

In her letter, she disclosed that she had been suffering every single day throughout the past 13 years.

 

 

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/Train-rape-victim-writes-to-junta-30238127.html

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

"Some other activities on Change.org include campaigns to ensure that producers of television series do not play up scripts about sexual offences against females in their shows, and stricter supervision in this area by the broadcast regulator."

 

 

There is a lot of this crap in soaps. Male lead kidnaps the female lead, yet they end up falling in love and getting married. Yeah, right.

 

Sanuk!

[King Kung]

Agreed. There is a lot of foolishness in applying censorship as well. Thai soaps have the creamy-white hiso lot smacking the snot out of their Issan slaves daily, and nobody seems to mind. Yet turn the channel and you'll see a cartoon alien smoking a cartoon cigarette (Roger, the alien on Family Guy) that is blurred out by well-intentioned censors protecting the children from the evils of life. I had a raff out roud moment.

[radioman]

A trial to establish guilt or innocence would be a nice first step.

 

 

 

I'm afraid this will have the opposite effect. Juries will be reluctant to find defendants guilty if they know death is the absolute, unmitigated result.

 

Justice and emotion are like oil and water.

 

Thai courts don't have juries

[baa99]

Yes, a Buddhist country should have a liberal death sentence.

[Flashermac]

You wouldn't believe how bloodthirsty most Thais are. Several times I've asked university students if they thought the death penalty should be abolished. They overwhelmingly have answered no! "He did the crime, so he should pay the penalty." But the Buddha taught that one should not kill anything ... animal or human. Thais are Buddhists only when it is convenient, just like most Christians are in the USA.

[SpiceMan]

In my own country, since the death penalty was abolished, 400 people have been murdered by people who have served time for killing.

 

I don't see why your students should have to pay tax to keep murderers alive.