Section 339/2: Robbery of religious property
Statutory text (Thai original)
ถ้าการชิงทรัพย์ได้กระทำต่อทรัพย์ตามมาตรา ๓๓๕ ทวิ วรรคแรก ผู้กระทำต้องระวางโทษจำคุกตั้งแต่สิบปีถึงสิบห้าปี และปรับตั้งแต่สองแสนบาทถึงสามแสนบาท ถ้าการชิงทรัพย์นั้นเป็นการกระทำในสถานที่ดังที่บัญญัติไว้ในมาตรา ๓๓๕ ทวิ วรรคสองด้วย ผู้กระทำต้องระวางโทษจำคุกตั้งแต่สิบปีถึงยี่สิบปี และปรับตั้งแต่สองแสนบาทถึงสี่แสนบาท ถ้าการชิงทรัพย์ตามวรรคแรกหรือวรรคสองเป็นเหตุให้ผู้อื่นรับอันตรายแก่กายหรือจิตใจ ผู้กระทำต้องระวางโทษจำคุกตั้งแต่สิบห้าปีถึงยี่สิบปี และปรับตั้งแต่สามแสนบาทถึงสี่แสนบาท ถ้าการชิงทรัพย์ตามวรรคแรกหรือวรรคสองเป็นเหตุให้ผู้อื่นรับอันตรายสาหัส ผู้กระทำต้องระวางโทษจำคุกตลอดชีวิต หรือจำคุกตั้งแต่สิบห้าปีถึงยี่สิบปี ถ้าการชิงทรัพย์ตามวรรคแรกหรือวรรคสองเป็นเหตุให้ผู้อื่นถึงแก่ความตาย ผู้กระทำต้องระวางโทษประหารชีวิต หมายเหตุ: [อัตราโทษ แก้ไขเพิ่มเติมโดยมาตรา ๑๐ แห่งพระราชบัญญัติแก้ไขเพิ่มเติมประมวลกฎหมายอาญา (ฉบับที่ ๒๖) พ.ศ. ๒๕๖๐]
English translation
Where a robbery is committed against property described in Section 335 bis paragraph one, the offender shall be liable to imprisonment from ten to fifteen years and a fine from two hundred thousand to three hundred thousand baht.
Where that robbery is also committed in a place described in Section 335 bis paragraph two, the offender shall be liable to imprisonment from ten to twenty years and a fine from two hundred thousand to four hundred thousand baht.
Where a robbery under paragraph one or paragraph two causes harm to the body or mind of another person, the offender shall be liable to imprisonment from fifteen to twenty years and a fine from three hundred thousand to four hundred thousand baht.
Where a robbery under paragraph one or paragraph two causes grievous bodily harm, the offender shall be liable to imprisonment for life, or to imprisonment from fifteen to twenty years.
Where a robbery under paragraph one or paragraph two causes the death of another person, the offender shall be liable to death.
ThaiLawOnline translation, written from the Thai original and verified
Firm annotation
Section 339 bis sits in Book II, Title XII, Chapter II (Extortion, Blackmail, Robbery and Gang-Robbery). It is the robbery counterpart to the theft provision in Section 335 bis: it takes the same category of protected property, a publicly venerated Buddha image or religious object or national heritage, and applies far heavier penalties because the taking is accomplished by force or threat of immediate danger. The section is tiered. Paragraph one covers robbery of such property; paragraph two adds weight where it occurs in one of the protected locations listed in Section 335 bis paragraph two; and paragraphs three to five graduate the penalty by the harm caused, from bodily or mental harm, to grievous bodily harm, to death. It parallels Sections 340 bis and 340 ter, which apply the same protected-property concept to gang-robbery.
Why this matters in practice
This is among the most serious property offences in the Code. Even the base tier carries a ten-year minimum, and where the victim dies the penalty is death. Robbery is a non-compoundable public offence prosecuted by the state; private settlement does not end criminal liability, although restitution and a guilty plea can mitigate sentence. Because the penalty tier turns on the protected character of the item, the place, and the resulting harm, factual proof of each element is decisive. A person accused under this section should obtain legal advice without delay.
Cited in 9 Supreme Court decisions (1975 to 2009)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 4337/2552 (2009)
- Decision 2192/2539 (1996)
- Decision 3053/2531 (1988)
- Decision 2382/2519 (1976)
- Decision 9761/2539 (1996)
- Decision 1150/2518 (1975)
- Decision 1215/2534 (1991)
- Decision 817/2548 (2005)
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 339 8
- Section 340/3 6
- Section 83 6
- Section 340 5
- Section 340/2 5
- Section 78 4
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
How is Section 339/2 different from ordinary robbery?
Ordinary robbery is punished under Section 339. Section 339 bis applies the same conduct to a specific class of property, a publicly venerated Buddha image or religious object or national heritage under Section 335 bis, and carries much higher penalties, starting at ten years' imprisonment and rising with the location and any harm caused.
What is the maximum penalty under Section 339/2?
If the robbery causes the victim to die, the penalty is death. Where it causes grievous bodily harm, the penalty is life imprisonment or fifteen to twenty years. The base tier is ten to fifteen years' imprisonment plus a fine.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
-
Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 339/2 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 339/2. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-339-2/ (accessed 17 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 339/2 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-339-2/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-339-2/"><p>Where a robbery is committed against property described in Section 335 bis paragraph one, the offender shall be liable to imprisonment from ten to fifteen years and a fine from two hundred thousand to three hundred thousand baht. Where that robbery is also committed in…</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 339/2 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-339-2/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.