Ombudsman approached over Thaksin
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New Politics Party leader Somsak Kosaisuk yesterday petitioned the Office of the Ombudsman to determine whether Foreign Minister Surapong Towichukchaikul and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had violated the law or abused their authority in reissuing a pas
Somsak submitted his petition with Ombudsman Pravich Rattanapien.
A staunch critic of Thaksin and a yellow-shirt leader, Somsak said yesterday the return of a Thai passport to Thaksin had led to widespread criticism that he said could bring about a severe crisis.
He noted that the previous foreign minister Kasit Piromya, in the government led by the Democrat Party, revoked Thaksin’s passport after the ex-leader left the country to escape two years’ imprisonment for abuse of authority. When the pro-Thaksin Pheu Thai Party came to power last year, Surapong reissued a new passport for Thaksin.
“This led to confusion and widespread criticism. Either the previous foreign minister or the current one must have committed a mistake. It is impossible that what they both did was right – one revoked the passport and the other reissued it,” Somsak said.
Pravich, the new ombudsman, said yesterday his agency would look into the matter to determine whether the foreign ministry’s order to reissue a new passport to Thaksin was justified. If it was found to be unjustified, the Office of the Ombudsman would refer the case to the Administrative Court to rule whether the order should be revoked.
He said the persons involved would be summoned to testify – particularly the foreign minister and the officials involved.
Pravich would not say when he expected the investigation to be completed but that due to the nature of the matter, he did not think it would take a long time.
