The 3,412-page investigation report and indictment, filed in 18 sections, has been handed to a senior public prosecutor, Phongniwat Yutthaphan-borikarn, who said he would complete an indictment and forward it to the court by March 2 – before a fourth 12-day detention period ended.

He would not require an extension.

The indictment said the suspect had 11 gallons of liquid ammonium nitrate, capable of being made into bombs, along with 335 boxes containing an explosives-equivalent substance kept in plastic bags in his possession, without permission.

Hussein has denied the charge.

Police cited Hussein’s status as a member of Hezbollah, which was described as a terrorist organisation in their indictment.

However, they have decided to file against him only the charge of possessing explosives-equivalent substances.

A legal study is underway at the order of Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung to find out whether drug-related convicts on death row could be executed within 60 days after final verdicts have been reached, in an attempt to combat rampant drug dealing.

Chalerm said a new regulation stipulated that verdicts in drug-related convictions were regarded final at the Court of Appeals, not the Supreme Court as in all other charges. A legal study is working to find out whether immediate execution would violate the Constitution, or the convicts’ right to appeal for a Royal pardon, or any other laws, he said.

“If immediate execution – which I think should be done within 60 days after the final verdict [by the Court of Appeals] – is approved after the study finds it is lawful, a bill will be submitted to Parliament for amendment to put it into effect,” he said.

Under Thai law, convicts condemned to death for all other crimes in the lower court have three chances to appeal against execution, through the Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court and royal pardons.

Chalerm said it was not widely known that drug-related convicts sentenced to death by the lower court and the Court of Appeals presently had no right to seek a third chance with the Supreme Court. “The process for the changes [excluding the Supreme Court step] began when I was the justice minister [in 1996 in the Banharn Silapa-archa government].”

In practise, a large number of convicts guilty of other crimes and drug-related cases on death row are not often executed immediately, awaiting their turn for years, after Royal pardons do not favour them.

Chalerm said he would visit China today and would meet with anti-narcotics agencies there to discuss bilateral policies against drugs, which were now transported along the Mekong River in addition to land routes. He said Burmese and Thai authorities were cooperating closely to combat drug abuse and dealing.

Chiang Rai police have arrested two suspects and seized 1,736,000 amphetamine tablets along with 37 kilos of crystal methamphetamine, or “ice”. They also yesterday found and seized 13 kilos of “ice” abandoned in a botched deal between local traders.

The Chief Justice of the Criminal Court, Justice Thawee Prachuaplarp, echoed Chalerm’s policy on the executions within 60 days, saying the judiciary could not simply stay put over rampant drug dealing after the administration was taking serious action.

“Following the government’s heightened suppression, if the Criminal Court still hands the same penalties to drug-related convicts, damage would be done to the entire justice system,” he added.

The criteria for handing down a death sentence to convicts has also changed, with those having only 10,000 amphetamine tablets now facing death, instead of 20,000 tablets as before. Judges on duty for considering arrest and search warrants will cooperate with police and anti-narcotics officials to speed up the process.

Drug users and addicts, normally granted leniency and considered victims rather than criminals, will now face harsher penalties in case of repeat offenders, while first-time offenders will still be eligible for rehabilitation and other measures, said Thawee.

Nationally, the number of drug-related trials increased to 8,787 last year from 6,004 the previous year, he said.

In an impromptu raid on cells in Ratchaburi’s Khao Bin Prison yesterday, officials found many prohibited items including a mobile phone hidden inside a wall, which is a blind spot for the prison’s signal-jamming device.

Despite conducting previous searches to clear cells of banned materials before the arrival of another 200 inmates, the 300-strong force launched another early yesterday – this time with three sniffer dogs.

The raid, led by Ratchaburi Governor Chonchuen Boonyanusat, was conducted in Zone 5, which has 900 detainees facing sentences of 30 years and above. Though no drugs were found, the search team discovered 800 cigarette packets, pornographic magazines, cellphone chargers, gambling tools and spikes made from everyday objects.

Officials also found a Nokia phone embedded in a wall on the third floor. The phone, which had a SIM card, could be used because that |particular area is a blind spot for the signal-jamming device. Officials |plan to look for other blind spots within the premises and check on all outgoing numbers to see who called out and for what purpose.

Thanawee Prawat, chief of the Khao Bin Prison, said fewer banned items were discovered this time than in earlier raids.

SNIFFING FOR PROHIBITED ITEMS

Meanwhile, in Bangkok’s Bang Bon district, a 600-strong force armed with sniffer dogs searched the Thonburi Remand Prison’s six zones at 6am yesterday and found 150 prohibited objects including razors, scissors, cigarettes, porn magazines and gambling tools, as well as an MP3 player and an iPhone charger. This prison houses about 5,354 inmates.

Thonburi Remand Prison chief Ayuth Sintoppant said the charger suggested that an iPhone might have been smuggled in or was on its way.

He said prison officials would start conducting strict searches of visiting relatives as well as launch impromptu searches every month to keep the facility free of drugs and banned items.

In Angthong province, a 70-strong force raided male prisoners’ cells on Thursday night and discovered 23 mobile phones, dozens of chargers, some spikes made from everyday objects, three ya ba tablets and 4 grams of crystal methamphetamine.

Auan still wakes up behind bars, but he no longer feels the terrible confinement of being an inmate.

For more than a month, Auan, who has been in Klongprem Central Prison for nearly five years, has got out of bed with a fresh feeling, eagerly seizing a rare opportunity to get outside the walls and help dredge the city’s sewers.

The work is a part of state measures to prepare for floods in Bangkok later this year. But for Auan and the other inmates chosen to do this unpleasant but necessary job, the sewers give them the chance to recall their past misdeeds and plan for a brighter future when they are free.

“I can now comfort myself by thinking I’m not in jail,” said Auan, comparing his new daily routine to the weekdays of a company employee.

“I wake up to go to work in the morning and come back in the evening. The only difference is that I don’t sleep and get up at my house.”

Auan is among 50 out of more than 6,000 inmates of the prison who are allowed to take turns doing state work or public service from 9am to 3pm every day, except Sunday. His current job is to remove mud and waste from sewers at Soi Yothin Phatthana near a section of the Ram Intra-At Narong expressway.

“The dredging gives me a chance to review myself and past mistakes caused by my rash acts. I was a slave to anger then,” Auan said, without elaborating.

“If I had been more careful and sensible, I would have not ended up doing a job everyone dislikes.”

But the dredging reminds him of the future, too. Among criteria used to pick inmates for jobs outside the prison is that their jail terms must be nearly at an end. Auan has only nine months left until he can walk free again.

Usually, only prisoners whose remaining sentences are less than two years and are known as “good-class prisoners” are granted temporary leave from prison to work under guard, said Auan’s job supervisor Somchai Wongchalermroke, who also provides career training classes for inmates at Klongprem prison.

The inmates are trusted not to try to escape since they will soon be let free anyway.

They must also not be convicted of lese majeste or drug offences.

“We don’t choose drug inmates because their habits can sway them to use the jobs as a way to buy drugs,” Mr Somchai said.

Though officials carefully choose the inmates and instruct them to watch their behaviour while outside the prison, Mr Somchai, who has overseen the dredging job and other public service acts for 30 years, admits many passersby worry for their safety at the sight of the prisoners.

“So we work quietly and quickly in a bid to let people know we’re doing good things for society,” he said.

The effort has borne fruit as recently “many people have begun to smile at us. Some even give us food and water. So we’re less stressed and more proud of our work”, he said.

The sewers at Soi Yothin Phatthana where Auan is working are among 131 routes which the Corrections Department is hired by City Hall to clean.

Bangkok has spent 50 million baht on dredging 277 routes so that they have more room to hold floodwater, said Sanya Chenimit, chief of the city’s Drainage and Sewerage Department.

He expected the dredging would be completed by May.

Auan and the other inmates chosen to do the job will also get some wages as well as having their prison sentences reduced, depending on the number of days that they work.

One day of them working means one day can be taken off their sentence, Mr Somchai said.

Auan’s friend, Op, is of the same opinion when he was asked about the dredging work.

The former tattooist, who has one year left in jail, said the job helped him reflect on his past and the mistakes he made that he can never clean up.

But working outdoors amid the stench and dirty conditions also reminds him he has the chance to reform and so he relishes his approaching freedom.

“For three years I have not seen the world. I’m just happy when seeing electric trains outside,” Op said. “Now I am learning how beautiful freedom is.”

Although it is illegal, mobile phones have been used in Thai prisons for a long time. These have been smuggled into prisons in various ways. In the picture above, two men demonstrate how they used a remote control plane to fly mobile phones into a prison. In other places, the phones were thrown over the wall. Sometimes stuffed in dead animals such as frogs. Prison wardens have also been implicated in selling mobile phones to inmates. They buy cheap second-hand ones in the market and then sell them to inmates from about 10,000 Baht upwards. Mobile phones that can connect to the Internet demand higher prices.

Some inmates share the cost of a mobile phone with a group of friends to make it cheaper. Battery chargers go for about 2,000 Baht each. Alternatively, inmates can pay to use the chargers of other prisoners. Obviously the cells don’t have any power sockets. So, the plug has to be cut off and then attached to any electrical wires that they can find. Inmates don’t keep the SIM cards in the mobile phones and when they have finished using them, they will hide the mobile phone and SIM card in separate places. The SIM cards are pre-paid with numbers that cannot be traced back to anyone. All they have to do is ask a relative or friend on the outside to top up their SIM at the local 7-Eleven. All they need is the phone number. They don’t need to show any i.d.

The newspapers have been full of stories saying that the inmates are using these mobile phones for drug dealing. The drug business is all about trust and who you know. The big drug dealers on the inside hardly ever touched the drugs themselves. All they have to do is telephone one person to go and pick some drugs up and then deliver to a certain person at a predefined place. They then call someone else to pick the drugs up and arrange payment. All of this can be done from the inside. However, not all of the inmates are using their mobile phone for the drug trade. There are plenty of other reasons too.

When relatives come to visit their loved ones, they are only allowed a maximum of 20 minutes. However, as the prisons are so overcrowded, there are more people wanting to visit than there are hours in the day. Visits can only be made on week days. If there is a public holiday, like Songkran then prisons are closed for longer. On busy days, the prison authorities will try and rush through the visits. As a consequence, at some prisons, relatives and friends will only get a five or ten minute visit. And for that, you have to wait at least two hours or more.

So, that is why more and more prisoners are buying mobile phones. It is difficult to have accurate numbers, however, in just the last four months alone, over 1,500 mobile phones were confiscated in Thai prisons. These days, the mobile phones of choice are ones that can connect to the Internet such as Blackberry and Nokia. They are using these to chat with their girlfriends. They are also using the latest phones to take pictures and post them on their Facebook pages. They are of course very careful with the privacy settings on these pages.

Mobile phones with front facing cameras are becoming more popular as they can be used to make video calls. Just the other day, authorities at Angthong Prison confiscated four iPhone 4 phones.  According to a report in the Bangkok Post this morning, Corrections Department head Suchart Wong-anantchai said some inmates used mobile phones to make video calls to their girlfriends and then masturbate. They are using programs such as Skype and Facetime on the iPhone to do this. The Corrections Department have promised a crackdown on this.

Maybe if the Corrections Department did something about the very short visiting hours then prisoners wouldn’t have resorted to buying mobile phones. Or at least they should allow prisoners to use public phones once a week like they can in other countries.

The wife of Bang Kwang Prison inmate Peerayuth Phaetsakon yesterday turned herself in to police, declaring she had become rich because of her processed wood business, not through the massive drug trafficking operation Peerayuth was accused of running from behind bars. Her surrender coincides with a sweeping Corrections Department operation to clean up drug and other illegal activities in the major prisons.

Department chief Suchart Wonganantachai said the transport of 221 major drug inmates to Ratchaburi’s Khaobin Prison would be completed today. Suchart said prison officials had conducted a thorough search of the jail to ensure it was drugfree and cell phonefree before the arrival of these prisoners. The seasonal transferring of prison directors could also be considered an antidrug achievement, he added.

Suchart’s comment was made as he visited Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Mae Hong Son prisons yesterday to get them ready to support an increase in drug inmates following the government’s antidrug measures along the northern borders.

He said Chiang Mai Prison now held 3,700 inmates, well beyond its 2,000inmate capacity. Another prison had been built in Mae Taeng district but wasn’t open for use yet due to a sewage problem, he said.

Meanwhile, Peerayuth’s wife Warika Phaetsakon went along with her lawyer to turn herself in at the Provincial Police Region 1 Office yesterday

Her action followed the recent implication by another suspect, Nipon Kanchat, that drug inmate Peerayuth dealt drugs from behind bars. Nipon’s arrest also led to the arrest of four female suspects along with Bt2 million cash, and 10 bank accounts and ATM cards with a money flow of at least Bt1 million per account. Over 20 people were reportedly getting paid to open bank accounts and withdraw cash as part of the operation.

In 2009, the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) arrested Peerayuth and seized Bt24.4 million in cash and some 100 assets worth Bt5.2 million, which DSI believed were bought with drug trafficking money.

Warika said yesterday she had nothing to do with Peerayuth’s drug dealing or drug moneylaundering. Assets worth Bt27 million recently seized by police during additional investigation were from her processed wood business in Tak’s Mae Sot district. Other seized assets belonged to Peerayuth who gave them to her for safekeeping.

Warika’s family yesterday brought a Bt500,000 land title deed to post for her bail release.

Acting chief of Provincial Police Region 1 Khamronwit Thupkrachang urged people accused of involvement in drug trafficking or money laundering to surrender to police for their safety. After giving testimony to police and maintaining their innocence they would be allowed to get bail.

Unknown criminals at around 4am-5am yesterday threw two boxes containing 22 cell phones, eight chargers and five headphone sets into the Angthong Provincial Prison – but officials spotted and seized them.

In Buri Ram Provincial Prison, officials announced they had found 30 yaba tablets and 0.30 grams of crystal meth inside a roasted chicken that a Lop Buri man, Pattanapong Ngamsaeng, 23, allegedly sent to an inmate Boonyarit Yoocharoen. Police later got an arrest warrant for Pattanapong in a bid break up an alleged drug dealing network.

Khao Bin prison in Ratchaburi is being prepared for the arrival of up to 500 convicted drug dealers. Unlike other prisons, this one already has in place a number of phone jammers. Prison authorities are concerned that some inmates are continuing with the drug trade while behind bars. In just the last four months, 1,500 illegal mobile phones have been found in Thai prisons. In order to stop prisoners using mobile phones, nine 25 meter high mobile phone signal jammers have been placed around Khao Bin Prison. Each one can cut the signal of a mobile phone up to 100 meters away. Khao Bin has the advantage of other prisons as it has been built in the middle of no-where. Signal jammers are hard to use at prisons in Bangkok as the areas around them have large communities.

Pictures by Bangkok Post

Four major government agencies have agreed to jointly tackle the drug trade in prison with the Corrections Department being the coordinator, Justice Ministy spokesman Thirachai Wuthitham said Wednesday.

The four agencies are the Corrections Department, Department of Special Investigation (DSI), the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC), and Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo).

Mr Thirachai said a meeting of the four agencies had agreed the Corrections Department should coordinate the joint operation.

DSI chief Tharit Pengdit said his deputy Pol Col Yanpol Yangyuen would be responsible for using electronic devices to tap the telephone conversations of drug suspects. The Corrections Department will supply the DSI with information on suspected individuals and groups of people as well as areas targetted for eavesdropping, he said.

Corrections Department director-general Suchart Wongananchai said his department would obtain information on the drug trade in prisons and pass it to the DSI for evaluation.

Information involving financial transactions would be passed to Amlo.

Any Corrections Department officials found to be involved in the drug trade would be investigated by the PACC for further action.

Pol Col Suchart said the Corrections Department alone could not tackle the problem, so help from other agencies was needed.

He said in the past four months he had sacked 18 warders for involvement in the drug trade and seized more than 1,500 mobile phones in prisons.

PACC secretary-general Dussadee Arayawuthi said his agency had proposed that all prison officials be subject to lie detector tests and also have their urine tested for drugs.

The DSI should also check records of telephones use by jailers whose behaviour was suspicious, for example spending beyond their income and gambling, Pol Col Dussadee said.

On Wednesday morning, more than 100 illegal items were discovered in Khao Bin Central Prison in Ratchaburi during searches when police raided two areas of the facility.

Ratchaburi governor Chomchuen Bunyanuson together with a team of police and correctional officers raided zone 7 and zone 9 of Khao Bin about 5am after some notorious convicted drug dealers had been transferred from Klong Pai Central Prison in Nakhon Ratchasima.

Authorities found a cell phone hidden in an inmate’s locker. They also found four SIM cards, cell phone chargers, cables, gambling accessories and sharp improvised weapons.

Khao Bin Central Prison has beefed up security in preparation to receive 200 drug inmates being transferred from other jails.

The Corrections Department chief said on Tuesday that Khao Bin has the best security protection system of all prisons nationwide.

The department plans to isolate convicted drug inmates suspected of maintaining connections with the illicit drug trade outside prison from other prisoners.

In Surin province, authorities this morning raided Rattanaburi Central Prison and found crystal methamphetamine, or “ice”, and cell phones.

A team of about 260 police, administrative and correctional officers conducted an intensive search this morning.

They discovered a packet of crystal methamphetamine, drug tools, eight mobile phones, 10 phone chargers, five SIM cards, eight sharp objects and modified weapons, and tattoo needles.

Police were interrogating all inmates to track down the drug traders in the prison.

As part of an ongoing crackdown on drug trafficking within prisons, all prison guards will have to undergo periodic polygraph tests and urine tests, while DNA tests will be conducted on seized mobile phones in order to identify corrupt officials, the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) said yesterday.

The polygraph or lie-detection test should discourage corrupt officials, PACC secretary-general Dusadee Arayawuth said.

“DNA tests to find latent fingerprints on handsets might also find important links between inmates and corrupt prison guards,” he added.

Dusadee was speaking at a press conference held yesterday to provide details on an ongoing effort to control rampant drug dealing in prisons that will be run by PACC and three government agencies: Corrections Department, Department of Special Investigation and the Anti-Money Laundering Office.

Under the Justice Ministry’s guidelines, the DSI and the Corrections Department have been tasked with gathering information and identifying suspected inmates and prison guards, the PACC would take legal action against officials implicated by evidence and the AMLO would seize their assets during prosecution and after conviction.

Corrections Department director-general Suchart Wonganantachai said he would not protect corrupt prison officials, and said that since he took office late last year, 18 guards had been discharged dishonourably.

In October, 700 mobile phones were seized in prisons, 700 in November, 500 units in December, 200 in January and another 100 units as of yesterday. “The statistics show that new units are being continuously smuggled into prisons,” he added.

Ratchaburi’s Khao Bin prison, which houses 221 high-profile drug dealers and another 3,000 inmates held on other charges, will get another 150 guards to help the 125 already stationed there, he said.

A search at Khao Bin prison yesterday turned up one mobile phone, four SIM cards and a charger, along with many other contraband items including spikes made from scrap metal. A mobile-phone signal jammer has been installed at the prison.

Similar raids were conducted yesterday at provincial prisons in Tak, Chaiyaphum and Surin. Apart from finding some contraband items at the prisons in Tak and Chaiyaphum, officials found eight mobile handsets, five SIM cards and many chargers, including a home-made one, at the Surin facility.

Commander of Surin’s Rattana Buri prison, Phaisal Suwannaraksa, said he believed the drug-dealing network between his facility and the Khao Bin prison had been broken thanks to the frequent raids and suppression. After three prison guards were dismissed last week, investigation into their links with a key racket leader – known as Phanuwat “Black Mouth” Sirichai – is underway.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung said Thai officials would be soon dispatched to Asean countries as well as China’s Yunnan province. The proposal will soon be submitted to the Cabinet for approval. “Yunnan is a key production source of reactants to various types of illegal drugs,” he said, adding that he was studying anti-narcotics operations adopted by Australian authorities.

“Australia is either free of drugs, or it can tackle the trade very successfully,” he added.

A U.S. citizen was sentenced to 2.5 years in a Thailand jail for insulting the country’s monarchy.

Joe Gordon, 55, who was born in Thailand and now lives in Colorado, pleaded guilty to posting links on the Internet to a banned biography of Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyade. The naturalized U.S. citizen also goes by the name Lerpong Wichaikhammat,

Gordon’s admission spared him the original 5-year sentence handed down, but still landed him more than two years behind bars.

The guilty plea was made in hopes of generating a pardon from the king, according to reports. The king has previously pardoned other foreign nationals under similar circumstances.

Gordon, 55, was arrested in May during a trip to Thailand, stemming from the Internet posting that happened back in 2007.

The recent ruling has sparked outrage from free-speech activists and government officials across the globe, who say that Thailand’s lese majeste law is used to silence dissent at an increasingly alarming rate.

“He was given the sentence for his right of expression,” U.S. Consul General in Thailand Elizabeth Pratt told reporters.

The links were posted on the Internet from the U.S., raising questions of the applicability of Thai law to acts committed in foreign countries, by foreign nationals.

“I am an American citizen, and what happened was in America,” Gordon said after the sentencing.

Nearly 500 people were charged under the law in 2010, a sharp increase from the roughly three dozen charged in 2005.

“The new government seems to be responding to questions about its loyalty to the monarchy by filing countless lese majeste charges,” Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

Recently a 61-year-old man was sentence to 20 years in jail for sending four text messages found to be offensive to the queen.

The spike in lese majeste cases has prompted harsh criticisms from groups like Human Rights Watch.

“The severity of penalties being meted out for lese majeste offenses in Thailand is shocking,” Adams said.