After 10 years and six prime ministers, the Neelapaijit family has still not received a word of apology or notice of any progress about the prosecution of those involved in the enforced disappearance of the Muslim human rights lawyer.
Angkhana Neelapaijit, the wife of the missing lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit, said at a meeting in Bangkok that her family has heard nothing from any leaders or police authorities about his fate and the perpetrators' prosecution. Somchai disappeared in Bangkok on March 12, 2004.
"During the Abhisit Vejjajiva government, the involved police authorities were relieved of their duties, but under the Yingluck Shinawatra administration they were re-instated and even promoted," Ms Angkhana said on Tuesday night at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand.
Caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck pledged before the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) last year that her government was committed to upholding human rights principles, but she has not replied to a letter sent by Ms Angkhana seeking an explanation about Somchai's case.
At the time of his disappearance, the human rights lawyer was defending people accused of attacking a military base as part of the ongoing insurgency in the restive South and had alleged that police tortured the Muslim suspects.
Ms Angkhana filed a formal complaint two days after Somchai's disappearance and has searched for the truth and pursued justice for her husband ever since.
"A decade has passed and no one has been punished for the enforced disappearance of my husband who was fighting against injustice and exploitation," she said.
"The culture of impunity must be stopped and I'm speaking about this on behalf of hundreds of others who have faced a similar fate."
On April 2004, the Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for five police officers for their alleged participation in robbing Somchai and forcing him into a vehicle.
One of the accused, Pol Maj Ngern Thongsuk, worked in the Crime Suppression Division and was one of the officers investigating a weapons robbery at a base in the South on Jan 4, 2004. Another accused, Pol Lt Col Chadchai Liamsanguan, was the supervisor of Pol Maj Ngern and the other accused. Pol Lt Col Chadchai was also responsible for investigating the weapons robbery. Somchai was defending those charged over the incident.
In January 2006, the court acquitted four of the accused but convicted Pol Maj Ngern of the relatively minor charge of coercion.
Then-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra made a significant statement a day after the court verdict acknowledging that Somchai was dead and government officials were implicated, prompting Ms Angkhana and her four children to appeal against Pol Maj Ngern's appeal over his three-year conviction.
In September 2008, Pol Maj Ngern Thongsuk went missing. In December 2009, one of Somchai's clients and a witness at the trial, also went missing from his home in Narathiwat while under the witness protection programme of the Department of Special Investigation.
In May 2009, five years after his enforced disappearance, the Civil Court declared Somchai a "disappeared" person.
On Dec 11, 2013, the DSI claimed the Somchai Neelapaijit investigation files had been stolen in the course of the protests in Bangkok, a claim that was later declared to be unfounded. On Dec 20, the DSI announced that it was contemplating closing the investigation into Somchai's enforced disappearance.
Saman Zia-Zarifi, International Commission of Jurists regional director for Asia Pacific, said it was not right that only gang-robbery and coercion charges were laid against the police defendants instead of homicide.
Forensic evidence, finger prints and phone call records, which were potentially probative evidence in the trial, were not properly and adequately analysed, Mr Zia-Zarifi said.
The ICJ has documented the tortuous legal history of the incident and highlighted among other things the lack of political will to resolve the case that remains emblematic of Thailand's culture of impunity.
"This case has taken many unexpected turns. The government has not exhausted all potential areas of inquiry. The lingering judicial process over the last 10 years has lead us no where near justice," Mr Zia-Zarifi said.
The ICJ has appealed to the DSI to advance the investigation into Somchai's disappearance in a manner that conforms to its international obligations, including the Convention Against Enforced Disappearance which Thailand has signed but not yet ratified.
The family was denied the right to truth, the right to justice and the right to remedy, said the ICJ regional director.
He strongly disagreed with the appeal court notion that it required the body of the enforced disappearance victim to be reaffirmed to the court.
"This is already a clear case of enforced disappearance. Twenty-five calls among the defendants at the moment Somchai disappeared and also some phone calls to the PM's Office. No fingerprints were gathered from Somchai's car which was left abandoned a few days after his disappearance in broad daylight," said Mr Zarifi.
The ICJ called on the relevant authorities to redouble their efforts and file a separate case of homicide as well as enforced disappearance which could be done only after the ratification of the convention.
Sunai Phasuk, Human Rights Watch's senior researcher, said Somchai's disappearance silenced the relatives of enforced disappearance victims and made them reluctant to speak out about human rights violations.
Enforced disappearance was a convenient tool used by the police for crime busting operations along with torture, arbitrary detention and extra-juducial killings, Mr Sunai said.
He urged the government to reinvestigate the case as there was no time limit for such crimes.