'No order' to speed royal pardon

Ministry spokesman Thirachai Wuthitham, who is also secretary to the minister, told a news conference that Pracha had not given any instructions regarding a petition for royal pardon.

Thirachai said the permanent officials were simply following up an uncompleted task from the previous government. He was referring to a petition from Thaksin's red-shirt supporters, filed during the tenure of the last administration, seeking a royal pardon.

In October 2008, Thaksin was sentenced by the Supreme Court to two years' imprisonment for abuse of authority, in connection with his then-wife's purchase of coveted Ratchadaphisek land plots owned by a state agency, at a price much lower than the market value.

"The minister did not give any instructions regarding the petition for royal pardon. He didn't order this matter to be expedited," Thirachai said.

He also said the justice minister's removal of Corrections Department director-general Chartchai Suthiklom, who was directly responsible for verifying the names in the petition, was not politically motivated.

"The mass media should not try to link this matter to politics. I appeal for fairness to the justice minister," Thirachai said.

Chartchai also confirmed yesterday that the justice minister had never instructed the Corrections Department to expedite the process of seeking a royal pardon for Thaksin. He said the department under his supervision had followed the normal steps in dealing with the matter.

Chartchai also dismissed allegations that the reshuffle affecting him and other top ministry officials had hidden political motives.

He said the Cabinet's decision on Tuesday to move him to a position of deputy permanent secretary for Justice was actually a boost in his career. The Justice reshuffle takes effect on October 1.

"I will not appeal against my job assignment because there is no reason to do so. I just got a promotion," he said. "The headlines said I got 'booted'. In my case, it's 'booted up' rather than 'booted down'."

Chartchai said critics had no justification for claiming that he got his new job assignment to pave the way for a pardon for fugitive former prime minister Thaksin.

The processing of the pardon petition filed by the red shirts on Thaksin's behalf was now under the review of the justice minister, he said, arguing that the rotation of ministry officials would have no impact on that review.

"I want to remind parties concerned that the Justice reshuffle was a routine matter," he said, referring to the new line-up involving him and seven other senior officials.

In a related development, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra denied yesterday that the appointment of Pasit Sakdanarong as an adviser to the public health minister was a reward for Pasit, who was earlier dismissed as secretary to the Constitution Court president.

"Don't look at it that way. He is a capable man." She said she did not oppose Pasit's appointment because Public Health Minister Witthaya Buranasiri had the right to appoint him.

Constitution Court judges accused Pasit of secretly filming conversations among judges and later leaking the clips, which were then used by the Pheu Thai Party to smear the judiciary for what it claimed were unfair verdicts in a case against the rival Democrat Party.