Section 315: Acting as a ransom intermediary

Firm annotation

Section 315 punishes the go-between in a ransom case. Its elements are (1) acting as an intermediary, (2) by demanding, accepting, or agreeing to accept property or any undue benefit, (3) from an offender under Section 313 or from the person who is to pay the ransom. Three features are easily missed. The offence is complete on the demand or on the agreement to accept, so nothing need actually change hands. The intermediary need not be party to the kidnapping at all, and is punished under this section rather than as a supporter under Section 314. And because the benefit may come from either side, a negotiator who takes a cut from the victim's family is caught as squarely as one paid by the kidnappers. The word that limits the section is “undue”: a benefit properly earned and properly due, such as a lawyer's ordinary fee, is outside it. The penalty is fifteen to twenty years and a fine from 300,000 to 400,000 baht, or imprisonment for life, which is the base tier of Section 313 itself save that the death penalty is not available. Section 316 applies here too, so an intermediary who arranges for the victim to regain liberty before the judgment of the court of first instance, without grievous harm or imminent danger to life, must have the punishment reduced to not less than one half. The current rates were set by Section 10 of the Penal Code Amendment Act (No. 26) B.E. 2560.