Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are posing the question: "Are you innocent until proven guilty in the Kingdom Thailand?" Interestingly enough, I was reading a recent article in the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, and it actually, though the thrust of the article was not this topic, it actually mentioned it in the article; I thought it was worth making a video on.

So I thought of making this video after reading a recent article, again Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Police will still ticket motorists despite ruling. This is actually a really interesting article. They get into the posture of ticketing and how there has been a recent administrative Court ruling that the manner in which ticketing is imposed upon drivers here in Thailand is unconstitutional and the analysis of that is really fascinating. I urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article in detail, a lot of good information there. But the quote I am going to take is just for our purposes for this video specifically. This is a small excerpt from that article, quoting directly: "Section 29 stipulates that an accused person is presumed innocent until proven guilty. No law enforcement authority must treat such a person as though they have already committed an offence." So section 29, referring to section 29 of the Thai Constitution. So yes, in Thailand you are innocent until proven guilty, until such time as you have undergone due process and through the Thai Court System it has been in fact proven that you are guilty of a given criminal offence. So yes, much similar to many other jurisdictions, Thailand has an "innocent until proven guilty” standard.

Now the thing to understand with regard to this is Thailand does have differing investigative techniques; they also have differing rules regarding the protocols and procedures associated with due process. So again, we have done videos on this in the past so while yes, you are innocent until proven guilty, there are some assumptions especially Westerners make regarding the right to remain silent for example, the right to an Attorney, those are things that may be more qualified in this jurisdiction and for this reason, those who are or may find themselves subject of a possible criminal complaint or facing charges in a Court here in Thailand, it is probably a good idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.