Palang Pracharath defends Prawit over decade-old Cambodia wedding photo
Palang Pracharath Party spokesman insists the photo of Prawit at tycoon Ly Yong Phat’s daughter’s wedding was taken during an official visit to Cambodia nearly a decade ago.
- The Palang Pracharath Party clarified the photo is old, taken around 2016-2017 while party leader Prawit Wongsuwan was on an official trip to Cambodia.
- Prawit attended the wedding of a Cambodian tycoon's daughter as a “senior foreign guest” in line with diplomatic custom during his visit for high-level meetings.
- The party spokesman stressed that Prawit does not personally know the tycoon and warned that circulating the old photo out of its diplomatic context could create misunderstanding.
Palang Pracharath Party spokesman Pol Lt Gen Piya Tawichai has clarified that a photo of party leader Prawit Wongsuwan attending a wedding in Cambodia is an old image taken nearly a decade ago while he was on official duty.
Piya said the picture, which also shows former national police chief Pol Gen Chakthip Chaijinda at a wedding reception in Cambodia, was taken around 2016 or 2017, meaning almost ten years have passed since the event.
At that time, Prawit and his delegation were in Cambodia for a series of high-level meetings, including national, ministerial and regional-level talks, as part of ongoing cooperation between the two countries.
During the trip, the delegation was invited to attend the wedding of the daughter of Ly Yong Phat, a Cambodian tycoon and close coordinator for then–prime minister Hun Sen. Prawit attended the event as a “senior foreign guest” in line with diplomatic custom, Piya said.
The spokesman stressed that Prawit does not know Ly Yong Phat personally and is not close to him, adding that Ly’s role was limited to acting as a coordinator for international meetings.
Reviving an old photograph taken in a diplomatic and protocol context and linking it to current events risked creating misunderstanding, he warned.
Piya also highlighted the Palang Pracharath-led government’s record in tackling cross-border crime, noting that in 2021 authorities cracked down on major call-centre scam networks and mule bank accounts used to channel illicit funds.
He pointed to the 2023 Emergency Decree on Measures for the Prevention and Suppression of Technological Crimes, which empowers state officials and mobile operators to suspend suspicious phone numbers and requires service providers to share responsibility for losses, in an effort to better protect the public from online fraud.
