Former Democrat MP gets a year in jail for land encroachment

A former influential kamnan based in Kanchanaburi, Pracha, 71, has been released on bail of Bt100,000 while an appeal is under way. He was present at yesterday’s hearing after reportedly undergoing hospital treatment recently for poor health.

The Criminal Court judge found him guilty of having encroached on nearly 1,200 rai (about 190 hectares) of state land in the two neighbouring provinces between 1990 and 2004, although he later purchased the entire area. The imprisonment was ordered with immediate effect.

The judge dismissed Pracha’s claims that he innocently acquired the blocks, not knowing that they were state land.

They cited his basic qualification as a kamnan – as a virtual state employee – and his experience in the job as basic factors that should have kept him from overlooking this when buying a large area of land over many years.

Pracha is also awaiting final ruling by the Supreme Court, after being acquitted of a charge of bid-fixing by the Court of Appeals, which overturned an earlier five-year prison term handed to for the charge of running a criminal conspiracy. The bid-fixing conviction initially saw him, his wife and two other accomplices given four-year prison terms, but all the four were acquitted by the Court of Appeal.