Thai military expands its powers with Bangkok ‘black site’

When Bangkok lawyer Winyat Chatmontree was allowed to meet his client in detention at a Bangkok army base, Pratin Chankate was shuffled in blindfolded and shackled by military guards.

At their second meeting Pratin, a former police officer charged with plotting to attack senior government officials who was officially in civilian custody, was taken away after five minutes by soldiers, Winyat said.

Pratin is detained in a new facility established by the Thai junta to hold people deemed threats to national security, in what lawyers and rights groups say is an unprecedented expansion of the military’s control over the criminal justice system.

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“The military is running most of the process, from interrogation to building cases,” said Winyat. “Then they hand it over to police to continue what they started.”

The authorities say the facility, hidden behind the low walls and trimmed hedges of the 11th Army Circle base near Bangkok’s old city, is necessary for the efficient investigation of major threats to the kingdom.

The government and army declined to comment on the facility, but the corrections department hosted a guided visit to the site for journalists in early December.

Witthaya Suriyawong, the head of the department, rejected accusations that the jail is a military facility in civilian garb. While soldiers act as guards, the jail itself is administered by eight corrections staff, he said.