Section 65: Re-arrest of an escapee
Statutory text (Thai original)
ถ้าบุคคลที่ถูกจับตามหมายหลบหนีหรือมีผู้ช่วยให้หนีไปได้ เจ้าพนักงานผู้จับมีอำนาจติดตามจับกุมผู้นั้นโดยไม่ต้องมีหมายอีก
English translation
If a person arrested under a warrant escapes, or is helped by another to escape, the arresting official has the power to pursue and arrest that person without a further warrant.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
This provision, in the general part on warrants, addresses continuity of custody after a lawful arrest under warrant. Where the arrested person escapes or is assisted to escape, it authorises the arresting official to pursue and re-arrest without obtaining a fresh warrant, treating the pursuit as a continuation of the original lawful arrest rather than a new one. This avoids the practical impossibility of pausing a pursuit to seek another warrant. It operates alongside the warrant provisions generally and does not disturb the requirement that the original arrest was made under a valid warrant.
Why this matters in practice
The practical point is that escaping from a lawful arrest does not reset the process: the same officer can re-arrest you without a new warrant, and helping someone escape can expose the helper to separate criminal liability. This section presupposes that the original arrest was under a valid warrant, so if the initial arrest itself was defective, that remains a live issue. If you face charges connected with an arrest or an alleged escape, seek advice from a Thai lawyer on your position.
Cited in 4 Supreme Court decisions (1990 to 2012)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 9275/2544 (2001)
- Decision 4174/2549 (2006)
- Decision 3185/2533 (1990)
- Decision 16571/2555 (2012)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Most often cited alongside
Sections that appear in the same judgments as this one most often. The figure is the number of decisions.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Frequently asked questions
Does the officer need a new warrant to re-arrest someone who escaped?
No. Under Section 65, if a person arrested under a warrant escapes or is helped to escape, the arresting official may pursue and re-arrest without a further warrant.
Does Section 65 apply if the original arrest was without a valid warrant?
Section 65 is framed around a person arrested under a warrant, so it presupposes a valid original arrest; the legality of that initial arrest can remain a separate issue.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Criminal Procedure Code, s. 65 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Criminal Procedure Code (Thailand), s. 65. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-65/ (accessed 11 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.วิ.อ. มาตรา 65 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-65/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-65/"><p>If a person arrested under a warrant escapes, or is helped by another to escape, the arresting official has the power to pursue and arrest that person without a further warrant.</p><footer>Criminal Procedure Code, s. 65 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-65/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.