Graphic design by zerotwostudio
We closed our annual report’s previous chapter “Fund’s Health” with the amount of bail money in the judicial maze which decreased 2-3 million baht each quarter from almost 60 million baht in March 2023 to 50 million baht in December 2023. You might have wondered, where does that bail money go after leaving the judicial maze? This chapter has answers: the money is going, going, gone…
- To defendants (฿4.26m via travel costs for 375 people in 277 cases in 2023)
- To detainees (฿757,500 for 48 people in 2023)
- To courts (฿3.6m via bail forfeitures and ฿354,000 via bailor fines in 2021-23)
Towards the end of the year, the fund balance bounced back from the danger zone in the first quarter to rest comfortably around 6-7 million baht. It is unlikely that another donation drive will be needed, since the amount of returned bail in 2023 (฿27.46m) exceeds that of newly posted bail in the same year (฿21.12m). This differential will most likely keep widening as more cases are about to conclude and more bail requests are being rejected in the appellate level.
Therefore, of the remaining 50 million baht in courts’ hands, despite the fact that one part of it has left the judicial maze without coming back to the fund, the differential from the bail money that did return is still high enough to cover the costs of bail and travel for all defendants and the costs of living for all detainees going forward.
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