Absconding former deputy Speaker Apiwan dies at 65
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The House Secretary will coordinate with the Royal Household Bureau to seek a royally sponsored cremation for the late former deputy House speaker Apiwan Wiriyachai, 65, House Secretary-General Jare Phanpruang said.
The funeral will be held at Bang Pai temple in Nonthaburi province.
Former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra yesterday expressed her condolences to Apiwan’s family on her Facebook page.
“We are deeply sad and shocked to have learnt the news, I have known Apiwan from the time he was a Thai Rak Thai party member. He was trusted by the people of Nonthaburi to become their Parliament representative, he also became vice speaker of the Parliament,” she wrote.
“As a people’s person, he tirelessly dedicated his life to the cause with determination. He’s a true democrat and a gentleman … who [wanted] to establish real democracy in Thailand.”
Shinawat Haboonpak, a former Pheu Thai MP, posted on his Facebook page yesterday that the former house deputy speaker had died of a lung infection while receiving medical treatment in the Philippines.
The House Secretariat will also give Bt100,000 to Apiwan’s relatives to cover the cost of funeral services.
Colonel Apiwan received a doctoral degree in civil engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
He was elected an MP several times, the first in 1996 as a member of the New Aspiration Party. He then moved successively to Thai Rak Thai, People’s Power, and Pheu Thai parties, and was a vice speaker of Parliament.
Apiwan was also a red-shirt leader, and a key supporter of the ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
In July, an arrest warrant was issued against him by the Criminal Court alleging violation of the lese majeste law, Article 112 of the Criminal Code, during a speech he made during a red-shirt rally on January 29, 2011.
