Section 313: Kidnapping for ransom

Firm annotation

Section 313 is the kidnapping-for-ransom offence, and everything in it is driven by the purpose of obtaining a ransom. Paragraph one lists three ways the offence may be committed: (1) taking away a child not over fifteen years of age, where no coercion need be shown because the age supplies it; (2) taking away a person over fifteen by deceitful means, by threat, by violence, by unjustly exercising influence, or by any other means of coercion; and (3) detaining or confining any person, which applies at any age and requires no coercive means beyond the detention itself. The ransom purpose must exist at the time of the act, so a demand for money conceived after an unrelated confinement is a different matter. The punishment for paragraph one is fifteen to twenty years and a fine from 300,000 to 400,000 baht, or imprisonment for life, or death. Paragraph two raises it to death or life where the victim suffers grievous bodily harm, or where the offence is committed by torture or by acts of cruelty causing harm to the victim's body or mind. Paragraph three prescribes death alone where the victim dies. Three sections complete the scheme. Section 314 makes a supporter liable to the same punishment as a principal, displacing the two-thirds rule for supporters in Section 86. Section 315 punishes the ransom intermediary. Section 316 requires the punishment to be reduced, to not less than one half, where the offender arranges the victim's release before the judgment of the court of first instance without grievous harm or imminent danger to life. The current rates were set by Section 11 of the Penal Code Amendment Act (No. 26) B.E. 2560.