Section 209: Membership of a secret society (angyi)
Statutory text (Thai original)
ผู้ใดเป็นสมาชิกของคณะบุคคลซึ่งปกปิดวิธีดำเนินการและมีความมุ่งหมายเพื่อการอันมิชอบด้วยกฎหมาย ผู้นั้นกระทำความผิดฐานเป็นอั้งยี่ ต้องระวางโทษจำคุกไม่เกินเจ็ดปี และปรับไม่เกินหนึ่งแสนสี่หมื่นบาท ถ้าผู้กระทำความผิดเป็นหัวหน้า ผู้จัดการหรือผู้มีตำแหน่งหน้าที่ในคณะบุคคลนั้น ผู้นั้นต้องระวางโทษจำคุกไม่เกินสิบปี และปรับไม่เกินสองแสนบาท หมายเหตุ: [อัตราโทษ แก้ไขเพิ่มเติมโดยมาตรา ๔ แห่งพระราชบัญญัติแก้ไขเพิ่มเติมประมวลกฎหมายอาญา (ฉบับที่ ๒๖) พ.ศ. ๒๕๖๐]
English translation
Whoever is a member of an association which conceals its methods of operation and has an unlawful purpose commits the offence of being a member of a secret society and shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding seven years and a fine not exceeding one hundred and forty thousand baht.
Where the offender is a leader, a manager or a person holding a position in that association, he shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding ten years and a fine not exceeding two hundred thousand baht.
ThaiLawOnline translation, written from the Thai original and verified
Firm annotation
Opening the chapter on offences relating to public peace, angyi punishes mere membership of a clandestine group. Its elements are: (1) being a member of a body of persons, (2) that conceals its methods of operation, and (3) that has the purpose of doing an unlawful act. Unlike criminal association under Section 210, no plan for a specific offence in Book 2 need be shown; the secret and unlawful character of the organisation is enough, so the offence is complete on membership alone. Paragraph two aggravates the penalty for leaders, managers, and officers. Modern prosecutions have applied it to organised online crime such as illegal gambling networks, where each participant's role is a method of running the concealed enterprise.
Why this matters in practice
Because the offence is complete on membership, prosecutors do not have to prove that any underlying crime was carried out, which makes angyi a common lead charge in organised-crime and online-scam cases; it is not settleable privately. Leaders and officers face the higher bracket, so evidence of one's rank in the group matters. Angyi is frequently stacked with fraud and money-laundering charges, greatly increasing total exposure; see our overview of fraud and scam laws in Thailand.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 980/2567 (2024)
Taking part in an online gambling operation by advertising or luring players on a website is a method of committing the secret-society (angyi) offence under Section 209.
In an online gambling prosecution the Court held that arranging play and advertising or luring players through a website was a step in jointly committing the angyi offence. The defendants were convicted under Section 209 paragraph one together with related provisions.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 30 Supreme Court decisions (1963 to 2025)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 3214/2560 (2017)
- Decision 2273/2556 (2013)
- Decision 1176/2543 (2000)
- Decision 3485-3486/2564 (2021)
- Decision 5682/2559 (2016)
- Decision 784/2557 (2014)
- Decision 2614/2568 (2025)
- Decision 3812/2568 (2025)
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 83 28
- Section 91 26
- Section 90 26
- Section 210 22
- Section 78 21
- Section 33 18
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
What is angyi under Section 209?
Angyi is the offence of being a member of a body of persons that conceals its methods of operation and aims to do unlawful acts. Membership alone is enough for liability.
How does angyi differ from criminal association under Section 210?
Angyi punishes membership of a secret group with unlawful aims without proof of a specific planned crime, while Section 210 requires a conspiracy of five or more to commit a particular Book 2 offence.
Do leaders face a heavier penalty?
Yes. A leader, manager, or officer of the group faces up to ten years or a fine of up to 200,000 baht, higher than the penalty for ordinary members.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 209 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 209. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-209/ (accessed 17 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 209 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-209/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-209/"><p>Whoever is a member of an association which conceals its methods of operation and has an unlawful purpose commits the offence of being a member of a secret society and shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding seven years and a fine not exceeding one…</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 209 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-209/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.