THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
nationthailand

Corruption commission wants to revive Thaksin cases under new law

Corruption commission wants to revive Thaksin cases under new law

National Anti Corruption Commission (NACC) are reviving three cases, including two involving fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

NACC President Pol General Watcharapol Prasarnrajkit said on Thursday that he had instructed its legal office to revive three cases under the jurisdiction of the agency following promulgation of the new criminal procedures against political office holders law, which allows prosecutors and the courts to pursue cases in absentia. 
The three cases had been disposed of temporarily under the old law. 
Two of the three cases involve Thaksin who fled Thailand in August 2008. 
The first case relates to alleged graft surrounding a loan advanced by EXIM Bank. Thaksin was accused of abuse of power by ordering the Export-Import Bank of Thailand in 2006 to increase a Bt3-billion loan to Bt4 billion so that Myanmar’s then-ruling junta could buy services from a Shinawatra-run company, Shin Satellite. 
An arrest warrant was issued on September 16, 2008 for that case.
The second case is the two- and three-digit lottery scheme. Thaksin, his Cabinet and the then-Government Lottery Office director were accused of committing graft and neglecting their duty by approving a 2003 lottery scheme that was later found to be against the Government Lottery Office bill. 
An arrest warrant was issued on September 26, 2008 for that case.
A third case involves the private sector in the Bt6.68 billion fire truck scandal of Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, Watcharapol said.
Watcharapol said the NACC is likely to soon file a request with the Supreme Court to pursue the cases.
He denied the new law was designed to target Thaksin and his sister fugitive former prime minister Yingluck who was recently convicted in absentia of insufficient oversight of her former government’s rice-pledging scheme.

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