A Secret History of the Bangkok Hilton by Chavoret Jaruboon, Pornchai Sereemongkonpol Read Free Book Online Page A

that I’m being executed today,’ he said before he put down the phone. Executions are carried out without prior warning to prevent convicts from committing suicide or harming themselves in an attempt to have the execution postponed.
    They were offered a big last meal, which included some of the best-known Thai delicacies such as green curry and coconut soup with chicken. They didn’t touch the food but asked for water and cigarettes instead. They listened to a last sermon from a monk at the visiting area before being transported on golf cars to a gazebo where they were blindfolded. There they performed rituals to ask for forgiveness.
    In the execution room, two of them at a time were asked to lie down on separate beds. A heart rate monitor, showing their vital signs, faced the officers who were there to act as witnesses. Each was restrained at five points—legs, torso and arms—and stabbed with needles in the veins on the backs of both hands. Only one needle was connected to a long tube. The other needle is there in case the first doesn’t work. Three executioners were waiting to release three chemicals at the other end of the tubes in a separate room.
    Sodium pentothal was sent in first to sedate them. Pancuronium bromide was sent in next to relax their muscles. Potassium chloride was the last to go in to stop their hearts. The cost of the three chemicals used on each of them was only about 200 baht. The prison doctor was there to confirm their deaths and announce the time of death. The executions transpired without a hitch. Their bodies were kept in cold storage at minus 18 Celsius until the next morning when the prison doctor checked to confirm they were dead. Then the corpses were taken to Bang Preak Tai Temple through a small door the guards call the ‘ghost door’.
    After I retired, I had a feeling that more execution orders would be coming to Bang Kwang because drugs are rife in Thailand. That premonition came true when lethal injections were administered almost six years later to two drug offenders on August 24, 2009. They had been found to be in possession of more than 110,000 amphetamine tablets with intent to sell them. Their assets, which amounted to 73 items worth about 41 million baht, were confiscated.
    Although it is well known that the death penalty can be imposed for drug offences here, it seems drug dealers are not deterred. Arrests of major dealers feature regularly on the front pages of Thai newspapers. Some of them have connections with local dealers while some sell their wares to foreigners at tourist islands. They take their chances because they know that if they can get away with it, they will make the type of money could never get from working in honest jobs. No money can make up for a lifetime lost in prison, however.
    Drugs have ravaged our society. They destroy the addicts, who commit crimes to get the money to buy more, and those who are close to them. Hallucinating addicts have held innocent people hostage with knives to their throats.
    I think the death penalty will be in effect in Thailand for years to come. The notion that the introduction of lethal injection will serve as a stepping stone towards the abolition of death penalty is patently untrue, at least for now.

Chapter 4
    Prison Visitors
    Bang Kwang prison is not a place for anyone with no real business there. The officials have their hands full as it is a seriously over-crowded and under-resourced facility, holding some of Thailand’s most dangerous men. Yet posters on Khao San Road advertising prison visits have made it an alternative ‘must-see’ destination for many western tourists, particularly young back-packers. It has now become part of the standard itinerary for a lot of visitors to Thailand. I can’t help but think that some drop into the prison simply in search of cheap thrills and so they can show their friends at home how adventurous they are by going into the Big Tiger.
    Although I have no doubt that most of