Gulf Daily News 

THAILAND - 4 Thai men executed

Thailand yesterday carried out its 1st executions by lethal injection after abolishing the firing squad, putting to death 3 drug traffickers and a murderer at the notorious Bang Kwang jail, officials said.

The corrections department said Bunluea Nakprasit, Panthapong Sinthusung and Wibul Panasutha were arrested in May 1999 on charges of producing 115,800 methamphetamine tablets. The fourth condemned man was hired gunman Panom Thongchanglek from the southern province of Chumporn who was arrested in June 1999.

"The Supreme Court upheld their death sentences," Corrections Department director general Nathee Chitsawang told reporters.

"We have for the first time switched to lethal injection on humanitarian grounds because this method is less painful," he said at the jail, better known as the "Bangkok Hilton", on the outskirts of Bangkok.

Nathee said 3 drugs were used in the executions - the 1st sedated the convict, the 2nd relaxed the muscles and the 3rd stopped the heart. Since 1935, 319 prisoners including 3 women have been executed by firing squad in Thailand, the last on December 11 in the case of a prisoner found guilty of murder, the corrections department said.

The Thai government reintroduced the death penalty in 1996 after a 9-year hiatus and the rate of executions has been stepped up in recent years due to a campaign against trafficking in opium and methamphetamines.