Following yesterday’s news that a temple in Kanchanaburi, a western Thai province, that served as drug rehab and was allegedly abusing patients, including feeding them usually only as soon as a day, forcing them to reside in squalid conditions and torturing them; a lawyer and a shaman have requested the Crime Suppression Division police investigate and prosecute these responsible for the alleged torture and assorted abuses of human rights that occurred.
The shaman, Jeeraphan Phetkhao, and the lawyer, Paisarn Ruangrit spearheaded 10 representatives for over 200 males who had been freed by troopers from the Wat Tha Phu Rat Bamrung’s drug rehabilitation facility. The duo filed a complaint with the CSD. In whole, 216 men were freed from the rehab and dropped off at a subject hospital on Monday night time.
Jeeraphan says the living circumstances at the rehab have been deplorable and adds that the centre was closer to hell on earth than an establishment that helps folks recover from drug habit. The shaman and the lawyer inspected the rehab centre with reporters on Monday. The Kanchanaburi governor, Jeerakiart Phumsawat, went to the temple rehab following a call from Jeeraphan who updated him on the rehab’s state of affairs.
Jeeraphan adds that he had previously filed a police report with the Dan Makhamtia police station but says the officers seemed bored with pursuing the case. He says he felt “unsafe”, so he turned to the CSD for assist. He then live-streamed the rescue operation on his Facebook. The video depicted hundreds of people residing in a cramped, locked room that had 2 bathrooms for over 200 people. He believes the scenario is the end result of an organised gang made up of police, temple and rescue staff.
“It’s unusual that police from Kalasin and Roi Et provinces took so many people concerned in illicit medicine to this temple for rehabilitation. From some villages, 10 or more folks had been sent there”.
Paisarn the lawyer concurs with Jeeraphan’s assessment that the rehab was the work of an organised gang. He says what he saw at the temple was much like human trafficking: The gang’s first step was getting folks and taking them to the temple. After that, they demanded money from the patients and tortured and beat them as they saw match. The lawyer says 2 to 3 individuals died while they have been “in treatment”, but no autopsies had been performed.
Not all of the patients had been drug addicts. โซล่าเซลล์ says some of the sufferers have been people who had been charged with non-drug-related expenses corresponding to combating or physical assault. The lawyer says the parents of those “patients” were told that charges can be dropped if their offspring stayed on the rehab centre for 1 yr, supplied the mother and father paid all of the requisite charges..