Whether the right to appeal a criminal case, that is prohibited from Dika Appeal on questions of fact according to the Criminal Procedure Code Section 218 paragraph one, must be separately considered on each count of offence or combinely do for all counts of offences?
In this case, the Court of First Instance ruled that all four defendants are guilty of crimes under the Criminal Code, Section 269/4 paragraph one, together with Sections 269/7 and 86. The four defendants committed multiple and separate counts of offense, the court shall punish the person for each and every count committed, according to Section 91 of the Criminal Code, a total of 83 counts, with a prison sentence of 2 years for each count, for a total of 166 years in prison for each of the four defendants. However, in case that the most serious offence is punishable by the maximum imprisonment term of more than ten years, the prison sentence for the four defendants must not exceed fifty years according to Section 91 (3) of the Criminal Code. Therefore, the four defendants were each sentenced to 50 years in prison. All four defendants appealed. The Court of Appeal revised that the most serious offence is punishable by the maximum imprisonment term of more than three years but not exceeding ten years according to Section 91 (2) of the Criminal Code. The four defendants were therefore sentenced to 20 years in prison each, apart from this, the judgement of the Court of First Instance still remained intact. The defendant No. 3 rendered a Dika Appeals. The Court of First Instance has an order to accept dika appeals only on questions of law but not accepting dika appeals on questions of fact. Defendant No. 3 filed appeal against an order refusing to accept the petition on question of fact.
The Supreme Court viewed that even though all four defendants were individually sentenced with 20-year imprisonment by the appeal court, which exceeds 5 years, but in consideration of the parties’ right to file a Dika appeal on questions of fact in accordance with Article 218 paragraph one of the Criminal Procedure Code, the punishment imposed by the lower courts against the third defendant for each offence must be taken into account, not the combination of all imprisonment terms as claimed by the third defendant. Since the appeal court sentenced all four defendants to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years for each count, according to such Article, the parties shall be prohibited from filing a Dika appeal on questions of fact to the Supreme Court. (Supreme Court Order No.233/2557). In addition, though some acts were committed on the same day and were relevant to other charges that are appealable, it could be taken into account by the Supreme Court when it deems appropriate upon adjudicating the defendants’ Dika appeal, which is a separate proceeding from the examination of the Dika appeal by the duty bound of the court of first instance in accordance with Article 223 of the Criminal Procedure Code (Supreme Court Order No. 540/2565).
Prasert Phadungkiatwattana
Deputy Secretary of the Supreme Court
29 June 2024
