Handling of corruption cases against politicians being sped up

Pol General Watcharapol Prasarnrajkit, chair of the National Anti-Corruption Commission, said he had urged all units responsible for cases against politicians to speed up their work, but admitted there were many cases against Yingluck in the hands of the NACC.

At least 13 cases are pending against the former premier, who has asked authorities to treat her fairly.

Besides Yingluck’s cases, Watcharapol said, the NACC would fast-track a case against Suthep Thaugsuban, the former deputy premier and Democrat Party member, accused of graft over a multimillion-baht project to build 396 police stations nationwide. Many people have questioned the progress made in this controversial case.

In a bid to speed up the justice process on corruption cases, a new Criminal Court division for cases of official corruption will open next month, he said. This will allow the NACC to forward pending cases to the new court, which is expected to take less time to make rulings. As a result, wrongdoers could possibly face jail within three years. 

Watcharapol said the faster justice process should help discourage corruption. However, he denied that the anti-graft body planned to submit the Alpine Golf Club case, in which Yongyuth Wichaidit, a former interior permanent secretary implicated by the NAAC, to the new court as its first case.

In regard to petitions against General Preecha Chan-o-cha, his wife and his son, Watcharapol said a working group would be set up to investigate these petitions. These include those concerning alleged favouritism in the awarding of multimillion-baht construction contracts to a company owned by Preecha’s son and alleged inappropriate use of Army property by Preecha’s wife.

If there were grounds to proceed with these cases, the NACC would investigate further and take legal action in due time, he said, adding that the NACC has sped up cases involving all former politicians from both the Pheu Thai and Democrat parties.

Meanwhile, Deputy Premier Wissanu Krea-ngam said the civil liability lawsuit against Yingluck, in which compensation of Bt35 billion was sought, was based on Yingluck’s failure to avoid massive losses resulting from the rice-pledging scheme implemented by her government, despite written warnings from the NACC on this matter due to the scheme’s massive losses. The compensation amount was just 20 per cent of the state’s Bt178-billion loss over two seasons from 2012-2014.