Section 67: Arrest warrant for an unnamed person
Statutory text (Thai original)
จะออกหมายจับบุคคลที่ยังไม่รู้จักชื่อก็ได้ แต่ต้องบอกรูปพรรณของผู้นั้นให้ละเอียดเท่าที่จะทำได้
English translation
An arrest warrant may be issued against a person whose name is not yet known, but the description of that person must be given in as much detail as possible.
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, within the section on arrest warrants, allows a warrant to issue against an unidentified suspect provided the description is as detailed as possible, so that the person can still be reliably identified for arrest. It complements Section 60(4)(a), which permits an arrest warrant to state the name or the description of the person to be arrested, and works with the grounds in Section 66. The emphasis on detailed description guards against the risk that a vaguely worded warrant could be used to arrest the wrong person. In practice it enables enforcement to proceed where evidence points to a describable offender whose identity is not yet established.
Why this matters in practice
The safeguard here is the detail of the description: a warrant against an unnamed person must describe the target closely, so a vague description that could fit many people is a weakness you can raise if you are arrested as the supposed match. If you are detained on a warrant issued for an unnamed person, note how closely the description actually fits you. Where you believe you were wrongly identified, consult a Thai lawyer to challenge the identification promptly.
Cited in 3 Supreme Court decisions (1980 to 2022)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 660/2565 (2022)
- Decision 680/2530 (1987)
- Decision 463/2523 (1980)
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.
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
Can an arrest warrant be issued without knowing the suspect's name?
Yes. Section 67 allows an arrest warrant against a person whose name is not yet known, provided the warrant describes that person in as much detail as possible.
What if the description on the warrant is too vague?
Section 67 requires the description to be as detailed as possible; a vague description that could fit many people can be raised to challenge whether the right person was arrested.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Criminal Procedure Code, s. 67 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Criminal Procedure Code (Thailand), s. 67. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-67/ (accessed 11 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.วิ.อ. มาตรา 67 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-67/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-67/"><p>An arrest warrant may be issued against a person whose name is not yet known, but the description of that person must be given in as much detail as possible.</p><footer>Criminal Procedure Code, s. 67 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-67/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.