Health minister urged to tackle cases of sexual harassment

The move comes as a supervisory level official at the ministry’s Permanent Secretary’s Office is being accused of groping four female temporary staff members.
Meanwhile, a police source said the accused official, Asadet Rattanaworaprasert, had reported himself to Muang Nonthaburi Police Station to hear the sexual harassment charges against him on Thursday. He denied the charges and said he would only testify in court. He was passed on to the Nonthaburi Court prosecutor and released on Bt200,000 bail.

NGOs, led by Women and Men Progressive Movement Foundation director Jadet Chaowilai, submitted the open letter via permanent secretary Dr Sopon Mekthon, who affirmed Asadet’s case was also being probed by the ministry’s fact-finding panel. It would become clear next week if a serious disciplinary probe would be launched against him, Sopon told them. 
Sopon said the panel would also probe alleged threats made against the victims and lobbying attempts to make the issue go away.
The NGOs called for serious punishments for harassers, impartial channels for victims to file complaints, and rehabilitation for victims. They also demanded measures to prevent intervention by others to manipulate the outcome of probes. 
Jadet suggested the ministry should have dismissed the accused official from the civil service to make way for the disciplinary probe. The probe should include an impartial organisation or individuals to ensure justice and transparency, he said. 
Asadet had been given until the end of yesterday to offer a defence to the fact-finding committee against accusations that he sexually harassed four female subordinates. 
Failure to do so would cause the panel to base its finding on the available evidence, which would be unfavourable to him, Piyasakol said. 
Asadet’s supervisor is also under scrutiny for allegedly failing to act on complaints of harassment that allegedly went on for three years. 
Piyasakol had said the matter must be resolved as an example for all ministry branches, in order to maintain a culture of virtue and morality. 
Pending the investigation’s outcome, Asadet has been transferred to a district office in Nonthaburi. 
The matter became public after one of the complainants – a 30-year-old married woman with children – led co-workers in secretly recording an alleged instance of harassment on video. 
The video, submitted along with their testimony earlier this month, ended up on social media, prompting widespread criticism and calls for the official to be punished.