Corrections Department is permitted by law to place leg irons on former Bahraini footballer turned Australian refugee Hakeem Al-Araibi, who was arrested and is being detained in a Thai prison pending an extradition trial, said department chief Narat Sawettanun on Tuesday.

The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, yesterday took the almost unprecedented step of stepping up the pressure (no pun intended) in a personal plea to Thai PM Prayut over the case of Hakeem al-Araibi, who has been held under the most questionable circumstances in a Thai prison since he and his wife arrived here on a tourist visa for their honeymoon in November last year.