Section 167: Bribing judicial and inquiry officials
Statutory text (Thai original)
ผู้ใดให้ ขอให้ หรือรับว่าจะให้ทรัพย์สินหรือประโยชน์อื่นใด แก่เจ้าพนักงานในตำแหน่งตุลาการ พนักงานอัยการ ผู้ว่าคดีหรือพนักงานสอบสวน เพื่อจูงใจให้กระทำการ ไม่กระทำการหรือประวิงการกระทำใดอันมิชอบด้วยหน้าที่ ต้องระวางโทษจำคุกไม่เกินเจ็ดปี และปรับไม่เกินหนึ่งแสนสี่หมื่นบาท หมายเหตุ: [อัตราโทษ แก้ไขเพิ่มเติมโดยมาตรา ๔ แห่งพระราชบัญญัติแก้ไขเพิ่มเติมประมวลกฎหมายอาญา (ฉบับที่ ๒๖) พ.ศ. ๒๕๖๐]
English translation
Whoever gives, offers to give, or agrees to give property or any other benefit to an official in a judicial position, a public prosecutor, a case prosecutor or an inquiry official, in order to induce that person to do, to refrain from doing, or to delay any act wrongful to their duty, shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding seven years and a fine not exceeding one hundred and forty thousand baht.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 167 is the active-bribery offence aimed specifically at corrupting the justice system, and it opens the Title on Offences against Judicial Officials. Its elements are: (1) the actor gives, offers or agrees to give property or any other benefit; (2) to a judge, public prosecutor, case prosecutor or inquiry official; and (3) with the purpose of inducing that person to do, not do, or delay an act wrongful to their duty. It punishes the bribe-giver, complementing the officer-side offences elsewhere in the Code, and the culprit is liable once the offer or agreement is made, whether or not the money changes hands. Because the targeted officials are those handling criminal justice, it is treated more seriously than general bribery. It is often charged together with Section 144, the broader bribery-of-officials offence.
Why this matters in practice
With a ceiling of seven years and a mandatory fine, offering a benefit to a police investigator, prosecutor or judge to influence a case is a grave offence and is not compoundable. Crucially, the offer or agreement completes the offence, so a person can be liable even if no money is ultimately paid. The defence often turns on interpretation: the Supreme Court has held that ambiguous wording, for example a letter that does not clearly amount to offering or promising money to induce the officer to act unlawfully, is not enough to establish the offence, so intent and the meaning of the words matter greatly. Anyone approached by, or tempted to approach, an official in a criminal matter should get legal advice before any communication that could be read as an offer.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 3700/2529 (1986)
Whether conduct amounts to offering or agreeing to give money or a benefit to an inquiry official under Section 167 depends on the meaning of the words used; wording that does not clearly show an offer or promise to give money to induce the officer not to proceed against a suspect is insufficient to establish the offence.
The defendant wrote a letter said to offer 2,000 baht to an inquiry official to induce release of suspects. The Court examined the letter's wording and reasoned that, where the words did not clearly amount to offering or promising money to induce the officer to act wrongfully, the conduct would not constitute the offence under Sections 144 and 167, underscoring that the meaning of the communication is decisive.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 5 Supreme Court decisions (1959 to 2024)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 8181/2547 (2004)
- Decision 3700/2529 (1986)
- Decision 9173/2544 (2001)
- Decision 765/2502 (1959)
- Decision 5547/2567 (2024)
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
- Section 90 4
- Section 78 3
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 offering a bribe an offence even if no money is paid?
Yes. Under Section 167 the offence is complete once a person offers or agrees to give a benefit to induce the official; actual payment is not required.
Which officials does Section 167 protect?
It covers officials in a judicial position, public prosecutors, case prosecutors and inquiry officials, that is, those handling the criminal justice process.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 167 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 167. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-167/ (accessed 17 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 167 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-167/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-167/"><p>Whoever gives, offers to give, or agrees to give property or any other benefit to an official in a judicial position, a public prosecutor, a case prosecutor or an inquiry official, in order to induce that person to do, to refrain from doing, or to…</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 167 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-167/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.