The Court of Justice has drawn up a law to authorise cash rewards for citizens and law enforcers who provide information leading to the arrest of fugitives in an attempt to reduce the number of people skipping bail and bring offenders to justice.
Its “Act on Enhancing Efficiency in Enforcement of Court Orders in Criminal Cases” has been approved in principle by the cabinet and will be soon forwarded to the National Legislative Assembly, Athikom Intuputi, secretary-general of the Office of the Judiciary, said on Sunday.
There were about 27,000 bail jumpers from 2012 until last year, or more than 5,000 a year. The bill, if approved by the NLA, would help in tracking down the fugitives and bring more of them to trial, Mr Athikom said.
The bail money seized from bail jumpers would be used to fund the cash rewards for tip-givers and officials making arrests. The COJ will discuss the amounts with the Ministry of Finance.
Mr Athikom said the COJ had also amended a law to reduce social inequality regarding chances of being granted bail between the rich and the poor via the use of electronic monitoring (EM) bracelets. It will be used for test runs in 3 courts in Bangkok and some under the Courts of First Instance Regions 1 to 9 later this year.
With the EM bracelets, those who cannot afford to place money as bail surety could still be released on bail. It will also gave the judges confidence in making decisions related to bail requests, Mr Athikom explained.