The army has put a soldier in military jail for 15 days after a clip showing him caning and beating a drug suspect on Koh Larn, Chon Buri province, went viral this week.
The clip was taken during the suspect’s detention after a joint team of the army, police and local administration arrested him and two others, deputy army spokeswoman Col Sirichan Ngathong said on Thursday.
After the clip was made public, the entire peace-and-order-maintaining team on the island was relieved from duty by the soldier's unit, and the soldier in the clip was jailed for 15 days.
The unit also apologised to the victim’s relatives for the incident.
In addition, the supervisory unit tightened discipline and stressed the importance of abiding by the laws and respecting human rights.
“We regret what happened even though it’s an inappropriate act of one soldier. We’d like to stress it's never our policy to let our personnel use excessive force beyond the rule of law, regardless of the missions,” she said.
According to reports, the beating took place on Tuesday. The suspect was taken into custody after his house was searched and his urine test for drugs came out positive.
