Abstract:
Bribery of witnesses is a crime that causes damages to the judicial proceeding. And it is also difficult to seek evidence of the offense because the giver and the receiver may collaborate to conceal the offense. The Bribery of witnesses is the commitment of the Obstruction of Justice in the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime 2000 (UNTOC) which the foreign countries can apply with criminal offenses in Obstruction of Justice, such as Tampering with a witness, Bribing a witness, and Bribe receiving by a witness. As for Thailand, the Penal Code does not criminalize of Bribing a witness and Bribe receiving by a witness. The punishment shall apply to the general provisions of principals and supporters, according to Section 83, Section 84 and Section 86 which the prosecution must prove the elements of a crime under the provisions of law as an offense. In this regard, the thesis was made with a purpose to study statute of the Obstruction of Justice in the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime 2000 and statutes in the domestic laws of the United States, Australia, Singapore, France and the People's Republic of China. This research is to compare the elements of a crime including offender, commitment, bribery, specific intent and criminal penalties in order to provide guidelines for enacting a new offense in Thai law. As the result, Thailand should criminalize of Bribing a witness and Bribe receiving by a witness in the Penal Code, which is a general law to punish the offender. This would benefit in prevention and suppression the Bribery of witnesses and protection of judicial proceeding.