Ex-MP Pareena jailed for forest encroachment, freed on bail

The Ratchaburi Provincial Court, on Monday (October 6), delivered its verdict in Criminal Case, in which the Ratchaburi public prosecutor charged Pareena Kraikupt Co Ltd and Pareena Kraikupt, a former MP and well-known politician, with violating the National Reserved Forest Act, Forest Act, Land Code, and Groundwater Act.

The prosecution accused Pareena and her company of jointly encroaching on more than 680 rai ( approximately 109 hectares ) of forest land along the left bank of the Phachi River in Ratchaburi’s Chom Bueng district between 2012 and November 2019.

The defendants were alleged to have cleared forest land, built chicken farms, houses, electricity poles, feed tanks, water tanks and groundwater wells without authorisation, causing state damage valued at more than 35 million baht.

After considering the evidence, the court found that the disputed land had been occupied and cultivated long before Pareena and her company took possession, and thus did not convict them of deforestation or destruction of forest resources.

However, it ruled that they had illegally occupied state forest land of over 25 rai without permission and operated groundwater wells without licences.

The court sentenced Pareena Kraikupt Co Ltd to a fine of 60,000 baht and Pareena Kraikupt to four years and one month in prison, plus an order to vacate the forest land and dismantle all illegal structures related to the groundwater operations.

Following the verdict, Pareena submitted a bail request with surety of 1 million baht, which the court approved.