Top party to announce stand on amnesty law
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The Pheu Thai Party will hold a meeting of its MPs on Wednesday before announcing whether it will call for the enactment of an amnesty law, a legal adviser to former PM Thaksin Shinawatra said yesterday.
Noppadol Pattama said the party would definitely come up with a stand on the issue after the meeting. Earlier, a group of Pheu Thai MPs proposed that the House deliberate on Thursday a bill that would grant blanket amnesty to demonstrators.
Noppadol said Thaksin would this year celebrate Songkran in private with his family in an Asian country. Last year, Thaksin visited Cambodia so his supporters could visit him on Songkran Day.
In another development, Rakkecha Chaechai, deputy secretary-general and spokesman of the Office of the Ombudsman, said the ombudsmen would make their decision on a complaint against Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung at the end of this month.
In the complaint, Democrat MP Watchara Phethong accuses the two of nonfeasance for failing to strip Thaksin of his police rank after he was convicted and sentenced to two years in jail for abusing his authority over the Ratchadaphisek land case.
A source from the Office of the Ombudsman said Yingluck had informed the office in writing that it was not in her power to strip Thaksin of his police rank, as this power rests with the Royal Thai Police.
Also yesterday, Ombudsman Sriracha Charoenphanit said Ying-luck and the government had until the end of this month to explain why Thaksin’s passport had not been revoked. Sriracha said the ombudsmen regarded Thaksin a fugitive, so his passport should be cancelled. The ombudsmen are waiting for an explanation from the government.
