Section 204: Official allowing a person in custody to escape
Statutory text (Thai original)
ผู้ใดเป็นเจ้าพนักงาน มีตำแหน่งหน้าที่ควบคุมดูแลผู้ที่ต้องคุมขังตามอำนาจของศาล ของพนักงานสอบสวน หรือของเจ้าพนักงานผู้มีอำนาจสืบสวนคดีอาญา กระทำด้วยประการใด ๆ ให้ผู้ที่อยู่ในระหว่างคุมขังนั้นหลุดพ้นจากการคุมขังไป ต้องระวางโทษจำคุกตั้งแต่หนึ่งปีถึงเจ็ดปี และปรับตั้งแต่สองหมื่นบาทถึงหนึ่งแสนสี่หมื่นบาท ถ้าผู้ที่หลุดพ้นจากการคุมขังไปนั้นเป็นบุคคลที่ต้องคำพิพากษาของศาลหนึ่งศาลใดให้ลงโทษประหารชีวิต จำคุกตลอดชีวิตหรือจำคุกตั้งแต่สิบห้าปีขึ้นไป หรือมีจำนวนตั้งแต่สามคนขึ้นไป ผู้กระทำต้องระวางโทษจำคุกตั้งแต่สองปีถึงสิบปี และปรับตั้งแต่สี่หมื่นบาทถึงสองแสนบาท หมายเหตุ: [อัตราโทษ แก้ไขเพิ่มเติมโดยมาตรา ๔ แห่งพระราชบัญญัติแก้ไขเพิ่มเติมประมวลกฎหมายอาญา (ฉบับที่ ๒๖) พ.ศ. ๒๕๖๐]
English translation
Whoever, being an official having the position or duty of guarding a person held in custody under the authority of the court, of an inquiry official, or of an official having the power to investigate criminal cases, does anything to cause the person held in custody to escape from custody, shall be liable to imprisonment from one year to seven years and a fine from twenty thousand baht to one hundred and forty thousand baht.
If the person who escapes from custody is a person sentenced by any court to death, to imprisonment for life, or to imprisonment of fifteen years or more, or if the persons who escape number three or more, the offender shall be liable to imprisonment from two years to ten years and a fine from forty thousand baht to two hundred thousand baht.
ThaiLawOnline translation, written from the Thai original and verified
Firm annotation
Sitting within the chapter on malfeasance in judicial office, this provision targets an official specifically entrusted by a court order with managing or keeping property, such as a court-appointed custodian or receiver of seized or attached assets. The elements are: (1) the offender is a public official, (2) with a duty under a court order to manage or keep property, (3) who breaches that duty by any means, and (4) the breach causes damage to a person. Liability turns on the breach of the entrusted duty and resulting damage, not on proof of dishonest intent, which distinguishes it from the general dishonesty offence of an official under Section 157.
Why this matters in practice
Exposure is serious: up to seven years of imprisonment plus a fine, and the offence is not settleable between private parties because it is an offence against the State committed in an official capacity. In practice a complaint under this section usually rides alongside a claim that the official acted dishonestly or abused position, so the defence often focuses on whether a court order actually imposed the custody duty and whether the alleged breach truly caused the loss. Anyone facing such an allegation should get advice early; you can arrange an online consultation with a Thai lawyer.
Cited in 7 Supreme Court decisions (1960 to 1997)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 5211/2540 (1997)
- Decision 4677/2534 (1991)
- Decision 3598/2531 (1988)
- Decision 13/2525 (1982)
- Decision 2159/2518 (1975)
- Decision 2/2503 (1960)
- Decision 753/2510 (1967)
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 157 7
- Section 191 5
- Section 90 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
Who can be prosecuted under Section 204?
Only a public official who has been given a duty by a court order to manage or safekeep property, and who breaches that duty in a way that causes damage to someone.
What is the penalty under Section 204?
Imprisonment of up to seven years, or a fine of up to 140,000 baht, or both.
Can a Section 204 charge be settled privately?
No. It is an offence against the State committed in an official capacity, so it cannot be compounded by private settlement.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 204 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 204. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-204/ (accessed 17 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 204 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-204/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-204/"><p>Whoever, being an official having the position or duty of guarding a person held in custody under the authority of the court, of an inquiry official, or of an official having the power to investigate criminal cases, does anything to cause the person held in…</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 204 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-204/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.