The Supreme Court has upheld the Appeal Court's ruling in the sentencing of Supat Laohawattana, a former doctor at Police General Hospital, who is facing the death sentence for the murder of a migrant worker, to eight years and nine months in a human trafficking case.
According to the Supreme Court's ruling read Wednesday in Phetchaburi, Dr Supat had provided shelter to a husband and wife from Myanmar who were illegal migrant workers. The court was told he forced them to work without pay by intimidating them and their daughter and son.
The Myanmar husband is known only as Soraphong, or Kala, while his wife is known only as Phon, or Porn.
Dr Supat had also forced another illegal migrant worker known only as Ta-ngae to work without pay by threatening to physically assault and detain him if he didn't abide by the doctor's orders, the ruling stated.
The lower court sentenced Dr Supat to eight years and 33 months in prison for violating laws on immigration and human trafficking prevention and suppression.
The lower court also ordered Dr Supat to pay Mr Soraphong, Ms Phon and Mr Ta-ngae 600,000 baht, 300,000 baht and 100,000 baht respectively in financial compensation.
The Court of Appeal Region 7, however, later ruled that the statute of limitations for the count of violating the immigration law had expired, so the prison term should be reduced to eight years and nine months.
The Supreme Court upheld the Appeal Court's order for Dr Supat to pay 600,000 baht to Mr Soraphong and 300,000 baht to Ms Phon in financial compensation.
The Supreme Court upheld the Appeal Court's ruling.
Sorakrai Sonsi from the Lawyers Council of Thailand is one of two lawyers representing the three plaintiffs in this case. He hailed the ruling as a new standard in defining the meaning of human trafficking.
In the ruling, human trafficking is no longer limited to an act of illegally detaining and torturing victims but it also covers forced labour in which persons are coerced to work through the use of violence or intimidation, Mr Sorakrai said.