The Guidelines for Improving the Efficiency of National Security Prosecution in the Southern Border Provinces

Abstract

This research called the Guidelines for Improving the Efficiency of NationalSecurity Prosecution in the Southern Border Provinces. It aims at investigating the current situations of the officers who are in charge of collecting and proving evidence and analyzing factors, procedures and problems in national security prosecution in the southernmost provinces area. Furthermore, this study intends to establish guidelines for improving the efficiency of the system such as the process of collecting and proving the evidence in the southern part of Thailand, especially in legal proceeding regarding national security.This study is a qualitative research exercising by documents researching, fields researching, in-depth interview, focus group, public hearing from the samples that relate to the national security cases and its prosecution in the Southern border provinces of Thailand. This qualitative research was designed to analyze the theories of state power, the rule of law, good governance, investigations as well as the collection of evidence relating to security national cases. According to the research, it illustrates that currently,the concerned officers perform their functions incoherently under their own governing laws and regulations. Moreover, this study shows that the inquiry officials, who are responsible for dealing with national security cases, have to cope with not only such cases but also other criminal matters. Regarding the public prosecutors perspective they are unable to perform their functions throughout the whole processes in national security prosecution because of the due term of relocation. Therefore, this research suggests that the prosecutors and inquiry officers should work jointly at the beginning of the process. Also, the law should require that the prosecution must be complete before both of relevant officers are relocated to work in other districts for the next term.