Thai military court upholds lenient sentence in military hazing death case

A long-lasting international military justice case has reached its legal conclusion this week, but the political fallout of the matter endures.  The senior Thai military appeals court affirmed the relatively light sentences of two Thai military academy cadets for hazing abuses which may have led to the death of a first year cadet over 7 years ago.  The case is drawing continuous and escalating political criticism, possibly threatening the Thai military justice system’s independence through reform.  The parallels to incidents in the US military justice system, where individual cases can garner disproportionate attention and publicity driving calls for reform, are evident.

 In 2017, first year Thai military cadet Pakapong Tanyakan, died at the Armed Forces Preparatory School, with his death attributed to “sudden cardiac arrest.”  Days before, the cadet was subjected to substantial punishment, forced to “lean forward with his arms behind his back and his forehead to the ground and then shift his weight from one foot to another in a sweltering sauna” until he became unconscious, as punishment for walking on a reserved footpath.  This punishment resulted in his hospitalization.  Upon return to the academy for training, alleged abuses continued.  Two days later, Tanyakan collapsed and died. 

 Military officials conducted an autopsy and listed the cause of death as cardiac arrest.  The family, however, paid for their own independent autopsy, which found that most of Tanyakan’s organs – heart, stomach and brain – were missing, with the voids filled by tissue paper.  Markings on his body were also consistent with abuse.  The case was the latest in a perceived string of abuse cases resulting in the death of trainees, even as the Thail military has successfully suppressed reform. 

The Thai military is uniquely controlling in Bangkok, since the junta seized power in 2014.  The Thai Prime Minister, Prayut Chan-Ocha, a veteran, is dismissive of the calls for military reform, noting he had suffered the abuses and lived.  Moreover, as a result of the coup, the Thai military is embedded in virtually every institution, in addition to the mandatory conscription of all adult men for 2 year periods of service.

Thailand’s military court system has three levels of judicial bodies – courts of first instance, central (appeals) court, and the Supreme Military Court. On July 22, the Supreme Military Court upheld a lenient sentence – 4 months and 16 days in prison plus a fine, all suspended for 2 years – for two senior cadets found guilty of the assault and unlawful discipline that resulted in Tanyakan’s death.  The court noted the youth of the offenders and lack of prior offenses to justify the insubstantial sentence.  The sentence reflects a possible permissive culture toward martial abuses within the armed forces, even though two Army trainers were sentenced in June to 15 and 20 years imprisonment in a similar death-by-abuse case tried in a special court, the Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases.  

The two trainers were tried under a new statute, the 2022 Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act, which took effect in February, 2023.  Human Rights Watch’s Asia Director, Elaine Pearson, noted “Appropriate sentences will chip away at the Thai military’s entrench impunity and show that commanders can be held accountable.”  

The new statute may reflect changing attitudes in the Thai government toward a system that killed 21 conscripts between 2009 and 2024, possibly driven by international pressure, including reports from the United Nations.