Politically explosive Dhammachayo case can only be defused by rule of law

Failure to carry out this duty will split us further apart, since the abbot allegedly has ties to Thaksin Shinawatra.

The government must not let Phra Dhammachayo’s immense power and wealth get him off the hook, the way it let the Red Bull heir who hit and killed a cop with his Ferrari in 2012 avoid even a day in court.

To show that justice has been done, the government must show far greater mastery of the letter and spirit of the law than in the recent trial of the Myanmar defendants for the rape-murder of British tourists on Koh Tao. There, for example, the court found the defendants guilty mainly on the basis of DNA analysis done by a police lab that was not certified to do such work. That evidence should have been inadmissible. The court also relied on “confessions” extracted before the defendants had been informed of their right to counsel, thus making the “confessions” inadmissible under Thai Criminal Code S134/4.

If Phra Dhammachayo does eventually stand trial, the government can be sure that his defence will be world-class, in contrast to the incompetent one that served the penniless Myanmar defendants. A “guilty” verdict under such circumstances will be denounced by millions of Thais as politically motivated.

Burin Kantabutra