Section 6: Participants acting from abroad
Statutory text (Thai original)
ความผิดใดที่ได้กระทำในราชอาณาจักรหรือที่ประมวลกฎหมายนี้ถือว่าได้กระทำในราชอาณาจักร แม้การกระทำของผู้เป็นตัวการด้วยกัน ของผู้สนับสนุน หรือของผู้ใช้ให้กระทำความผิดนั้นจะได้กระทำนอกราชอาณาจักร ก็ให้ถือว่าตัวการ ผู้สนับสนุน หรือผู้ใช้ให้กระทำได้กระทำในราชอาณาจักร
English translation
For any offence committed within the Kingdom, a co-principal, an instigator, or a supporter in the commission of that offence shall, even if the act was done outside the Kingdom, be punished as if the act had been committed within the Kingdom.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 6 closes a jurisdictional gap left by the territoriality rule in Section 4. Where the principal offence occurs in the Kingdom, the participation forms defined in the General Part, the co-principal (Section 83), the instigator (Section 84), and the supporter (Section 86), attract Thai jurisdiction even if the participant acted entirely from abroad. The provision attaches liability to the location of the underlying offence rather than the location of the participant. It complements Section 5, which deems partly extraterritorial offences to be committed in the Kingdom, and together they ensure that persons abroad cannot escape Thai criminal law by contributing remotely to an offence that is committed in Thailand.
Why this matters in practice
Section 6 matters most for organized and cross-border offending, where an instigator or financier abroad directs or supports an offence carried out in Thailand. Such a person is exposed to Thai prosecution as a participant, and the exposure follows the participation rules: a co-principal generally faces the same penalty as the principal, while a supporter typically faces a reduced penalty. Being physically outside Thailand is not a defence where the principal offence was committed in the Kingdom. Anyone accused of supporting or instigating from abroad should focus on whether the underlying offence was committed in Thailand and on the exact form of participation alleged.
Cited in 12 Supreme Court decisions (1957 to 2026)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 1599/2563 (2020)
- Decision 6252/2556 (2013)
- Decision 7802/2538 (1995)
- Decision 1625/2500 (1957)
- Decision 506/2569 (2026)
- Decision 7491/2562 (2019)
- Decision 1394/2542 (1999)
- Decision 1683/2523 (1980)
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 91 6
- Section 83 5
- Section 78 5
- Section 90 5
- Section 5 4
- Section 2 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
Can someone abroad be prosecuted for helping a crime committed in Thailand?
Yes. Under Section 6, a co-principal, instigator, or supporter of an offence committed in the Kingdom is punishable as if acting within the Kingdom, even when acting from abroad.
Does Section 6 require the main offence to be in Thailand?
Yes. Section 6 applies only where the underlying offence was committed within the Kingdom; it then reaches participants who acted from outside Thailand.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
-
Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 6 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 6. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-6/ (accessed 17 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 6 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-6/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-6/"><p>For any offence committed within the Kingdom, a co-principal, an instigator, or a supporter in the commission of that offence shall, even if the act was done outside the Kingdom, be punished as if the act had been committed within the Kingdom.</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 6 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-6/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.