Section 86: No custody beyond what is necessary
Statutory text (Thai original)
ห้ามมิให้ใช้วิธีควบคุมผู้ถูกจับเกินกว่าที่จำเป็นเพื่อป้องกันมิให้เขาหนีเท่านั้น
English translation
It is prohibited to use any means of custody over the arrested person exceeding what is necessary only to prevent him from escaping.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 86 is a proportionality safeguard within Chapter 1 (Arrest, Detention and Imprisonment): the manner of controlling an arrested person must not exceed what is necessary to prevent escape. It disciplines how sections 83 to 85 are carried out, barring gratuitous or degrading restraints such as handcuffing and chaining designed to humiliate. It complements section 87, which limits the duration of custody, whereas section 86 governs the intensity or method of restraint.
Why this matters in practice
If you or a family member is restrained in a way that goes beyond preventing escape, for example being chained or handcuffed to cause public humiliation, that treatment can be unlawful and may itself be an offense by the officer. Document what happened and raise it with a lawyer; a consultation with a Thai lawyer can help you assess a complaint or a challenge to the custody.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 744/2501 (1958)
Restraining a suspect (in a gambling case) with handcuffs and chains in order to humiliate him exceeds what is necessary to prevent escape and is unlawful under Section 86, and can constitute an offense by the officer.
Officers handcuffed and chained the plaintiff throughout the journey while escorting him on a gambling charge, purely to humiliate him. The court held this custody exceeded Section 86 and amounted to an offense by the officers.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 7 Supreme Court decisions (1958 to 2016)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 5588/2553 (2010)
- Decision 2343-2344/2518 (1975)
- Decision 744/2501 (1958)
- Decision 12666/2556 (2013)
- Decision 99/2541 (1998)
- Decision 409-410/2509 (1966)
- Decision 7086/2559 (2016)
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
Is it legal for Thai police to handcuff and chain a suspect to humiliate them?
No. Section 86 forbids custody measures beyond what is necessary to prevent escape, and the Supreme Court has held that shackling a suspect to cause humiliation is unlawful and can be an offense by the officer.
What is the difference between Section 86 and Section 87?
Section 86 limits the manner and intensity of restraint (no more than needed to prevent escape), while Section 87 limits how long an arrested person may be held before being taken to court.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Criminal Procedure Code, s. 86 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Criminal Procedure Code (Thailand), s. 86. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-86/ (accessed 11 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.วิ.อ. มาตรา 86 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-86/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-86/"><p>It is prohibited to use any means of custody over the arrested person exceeding what is necessary only to prevent him from escaping.</p><footer>Criminal Procedure Code, s. 86 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-86/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.