Watana released on bail after indictment for corruption

[webfact]

Watana released on bail after indictment for corruption

By THE NATION

 

 

WATANA Muangsook, a key Pheu Thai Party politician, was yesterday brought to the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders for alleged malfeasance – the latest in a series of legal cases viewed by critics as politically motivated.
 

Public prosecutors indicted Watana for alleged irregularities in connection with the second Thaksin Shinawatra government’s Ua Athon housing project for low-income earners, which was built by the National Housing Authority (NHA).

 

Watana, now 60, at that time was serving as minister of social development and human security overseeing the NHA. 

 

Also sued in the same case are Mana Wongpiwat, a former NHA director who headed the project’s screening committee between 2005 and 2006, and 17 executives and employees of private companies involved in the project.

 

The court yesterday scheduled June 6 for both parties to hear a decision whether to accept the prosecutors’ case for trial.

 

Watana was yesterday released by the court on bail of Bt5 million, on condition that he would not leave the country without court permission.

 

Public prosecutors yesterday formally indicted nine key suspects including Watana, out of 19 people accused in the case. Six of the nine appeared at the Office of Attorney-General in an appointment with public prosecutors yesterday morning.

 

Watana yesterday denied the allegation that he had asked for a bribe from the private companies involved in the project. He claimed the accusation against him was just an attempt to legitimise the 2006 coup.

 

The politician said he was satisfied that the requested bail was not high.

 

He said he was confident about the evidence he had. “This case is not complex. The NACC knows that. This case is meant as a political tool to harm our group,” Watana said, referring to the junta’s political enemies.

 

Watana added that in addition to the legal cases against him and other politicians who stand opposed to the junta, there would be more soon against politicians in the Thaksin camp, including ex-PM Yingluck Shinawatra. On the contrary, Watana added, cases against his political rivals have seen slow progress.

 

The scandal-hit Ua Athon housing project was first investigated by the Assets Examination Committee (AEC), which was set up after the 2006 military that overthrew the second Thaksin government. The case came after the National Anti-Corruption Commission took over when the AEC’s term expired. 

 

Last year, the NACC submitted its investigative report regarding the case to the Office of the Attorney-General. Recently, Attorney-General Khemchai Chutiwong decided to indict 19 people found involved in the alleged irregularities.

 

According to the lawsuit, Watana is accused of malfeasance for abusing his power as a government official for bribery. Mana is accused of asking for and taking a bribe. And the 17 others are accused of supporting malfeasance committed by Watana.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/politics/30344994

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-05-10

[Samui Bodoh]

Hmm... regurgitating a very old case against the Junta's political foes in the run up to an expected election; once again the NACC is showing its colours.

 

Thailand's reputation for "justice" is likely to take yet another hit for this. The organization that is supposed to fight corruption, the organization that can't/won't deal with General Rolex, the organization that manages to ignore most if not all current corruption cases, has the priority of a very old case.

 

Thailand has a huge corruption problem and desperately needs an effective counter-corruption organization. While there are no absolute requirements, there is a global consensus that an anti-corruption organization needs to be effective, politically-neutral, accountable, respected, and trusted by all sides of the political spectrum. The NACC meets none of these criteria.

 

It is time to disband the NACC and try again; whatever reputation it had for honesty and fairness is lost, and when that reputation is lost it is never regained.

 

[YetAnother]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Public prosecutors indicted Watana for alleged irregularities in connection with the second Thaksin Shinawatra government’s Ua Athon housing project for low-income earners, which was built by the National Housing Authority (NHA).

interesting that Corruption is used as a tool; there is so much of it, seemingly everyone does it, that it can be used in a twisted form of law enforcement, in this case political persecution

[colinneil]

The crowd in power at the moment are dragging up anything they can think of to distract attention away from their own corrupt activities.

[BobBKK]

They seek to intimidate and scare anyone they please. 

[tomta]

I know nothing about Watana's guilt or innocence in the matter of corruption in 2006. But it is interesting to point out that he has been one of the firmest and most principled opponents of the 2014 coup and junta. He's been attitude adjusted several times. So, of all the ex- Pheaua Thai acolytes he gets lumbered with corruption charges while snow white innocents like Newin and Kamnan Poh's family are given jobs with the government. Must be just a coincidence.

[Baerboxer]

3 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

Hmm... regurgitating a very old case against the Junta's political foes in the run up to an expected election; once again the NACC is showing its colours.

 

Thailand's reputation for "justice" is likely to take yet another hit for this. The organization that is supposed to fight corruption, the organization that can't/won't deal with General Rolex, the organization that manages to ignore most if not all current corruption cases, has the priority of a very old case.

 

Thailand has a huge corruption problem and desperately needs an effective counter-corruption organization. While there are no absolute requirements, there is a global consensus that an anti-corruption organization needs to be effective, politically-neutral, accountable, respected, and trusted by all sides of the political spectrum. The NACC meets none of these criteria.

 

It is time to disband the NACC and try again; whatever reputation it had for honesty and fairness is lost, and when that reputation is lost it is never regained.

 

 

But, but, but  what about Prawit!

 

Do try and stay on topic. This is about a 2006 alleged offense that would never have come to light had a) his leaders  remained in control and b] he kept his gob shut when they lost control. He's drawn attention to himself and so they start digging and digging once you piss them off enough.

 

The Junta use the NACC - whose actual success rate in seeing cases through to successful prosecutions and convictions isn't something to be proud of. The Shins used the DSI under Tarit the turncoat coupled with Chalerm making threats to silence and intimidate their opponents.

 

These tricks work because so many are 'at it" that the digging can soon turn something up if/when required. That's the game that's played.

 

Disbanding the NACC (and let's not pretend the DSI are better) and replacing them won't achieve diddly squat. The whole justice system needs reforming, from top to bottom. But no one as the appetite for that. Perhaps because none of them actually want to.

 

 

[Baerboxer]

47 minutes ago, tomta said:

I know nothing about Watana's guilt or innocence in the matter of corruption in 2006. But it is interesting to point out that he has been one of the firmest and most principled opponents of the 2014 coup and junta. He's been attitude adjusted several times. So, of all the ex- Pheaua Thai acolytes he gets lumbered with corruption charges while snow white innocents like Newin and Kamnan Poh's family are given jobs with the government. Must be just a coincidence.

 

Of course. He's drawn attention to himself. Just like Jatuporn and a few others did. Do that and the digging starts. The Shins did the same as the Junta. Annoy them and if you can't be bought off or easily intimidated then they go after you with the NACC or DSI.

 

They're able to do this because corruption is so widespread that it's fairly easy to uncover when they want to. However, the behind the scenes negotiations usually result in deals rather than convictions. Compare what's happened to the mouthy Jatuporn and his mate, the shrewd Nattawit since the Junta took over. 

 

That's the game here.

[Anak Nakal]

If 2006, why now?

Prayut want cheat election.

[tomta]

6 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

Of course. He's drawn attention to himself. Just like Jatuporn and a few others did. Do that and the digging starts. The Shins did the same as the Junta. Annoy them and if you can't be bought off or easily intimidated then they go after you with the NACC or DSI.

 

They're able to do this because corruption is so widespread that it's fairly easy to uncover when they want to. However, the behind the scenes negotiations usually result in deals rather than convictions. Compare what's happened to the mouthy Jatuporn and his mate, the shrewd Nattawit since the Junta took over. 

 

That's the game here.

OK. So corruption is perfectly acceptable if you are politically well-behaved. Isn't this selective justice actually a more pernicious form of corruption than any which is uncovered?

[candide]

16 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Of course. He's drawn attention to himself. Just like Jatuporn and a few others did. Do that and the digging starts. The Shins did the same as the Junta. Annoy them and if you can't be bought off or easily intimidated then they go after you with the NACC or DSI.

 

They're able to do this because corruption is so widespread that it's fairly easy to uncover when they want to. However, the behind the scenes negotiations usually result in deals rather than convictions. Compare what's happened to the mouthy Jatuporn and his mate, the shrewd Nattawit since the Junta took over. 

 

That's the game here.

It makes sense. As they are all corrupt, a good way to get rid of your opponents is to accuse them. However it is not as balanced as you may understand it. It can be assumed that the DSI would side with the government as it appoints the director. However, other entities (semi-judiciary such as NACC, judiciary) tend to be permanently on one particular (yellow) side of the political divide. And in particular, it is not enough to indict someone, he must be convicted by a court. For example, the Shins may have tried to intimidate Abhisit and Suthep, but it couldn't work as they were certain not to be convicted by a yellow court.

 

Actually, even if there is a reform, I don't see much hope as the crucial problem is how members of the judiciary and semi-judiciary are appointed. If they are appointed by the government, it can only work if there is an alternance of parties in power, so you get different layers of different colours according to the date they have been appointed (I.e. the Supreme court in the U.S). It could not have worked in Thailand as the elected party has always been the same, so they would be all red (which is as bad as being all yellow). If they are appointed by someone else, the key issue is by whom and how? The risk is the rise of a self-appointing network (the current situation), with its own objectives and political preferences. Of course this latter case it's even worse when the system is regularly re-initialised after each coup, to make sure the self-appointing network starts with the right colour.

[KiwiKiwi]

5 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

Hmm... regurgitating a very old case against the Junta's political foes in the run up to an expected election; once again the NACC is showing its colours.

 

Thailand's reputation for "justice" is likely to take yet another hit for this. The organization that is supposed to fight corruption, the organization that can't/won't deal with General Rolex, the organization that manages to ignore most if not all current corruption cases, has the priority of a very old case.

 

Thailand has a huge corruption problem and desperately needs an effective counter-corruption organization. While there are no absolute requirements, there is a global consensus that an anti-corruption organization needs to be effective, politically-neutral, accountable, respected, and trusted by all sides of the political spectrum. The NACC meets none of these criteria.

 

It is time to disband the NACC and try again; whatever reputation it had for honesty and fairness is lost, and when that reputation is lost it is never regained.

 

Correct. Knock it down and start again. When I see the 1,000th senior police officer, the 1,000th Senior Civil Servant and the 1,000th Army officer above the rank of Major imprisoned for corruption, then I'll believe progress is being made. Until then, it's all just mental masturbation smoke and mirrors and empty rhetoric.

 

'Prayuth solved the corruption problem'. He can't even start to address it until he explains his own wealth. Poachers to not turn into gamekeepers.

Edited May 10, 2018 by KiwiKiwi

[Lucky mike]

The old level playing field ?

[Eric Loh]

Let's see how level is the playing field. The case goes back to 2006 and procrastinated until 2016 when it was referred to the AG for prosecution. In the meantime, Khun Watana was a regular critic of the junta and was 'requested' for attitude adjustment on many occasions and was detained and held incommunicado for few days.His latest criticism was on the conscription which he wanted to get rid if PTP was elected as next government. Then out of the blue, the NACC quickened their pace and decide to indict him. I am sure the junta has something up their sleeves to bar him from the next election. It is so predictable what the junta do these days. 

[scorecard]

3 hours ago, Baerboxer said:

 

But, but, but  what about Prawit!

 

Do try and stay on topic. This is about a 2006 alleged offense that would never have come to light had a) his leaders  remained in control and b] he kept his gob shut when they lost control. He's drawn attention to himself and so they start digging and digging once you piss them off enough.

 

The Junta use the NACC - whose actual success rate in seeing cases through to successful prosecutions and convictions isn't something to be proud of. The Shins used the DSI under Tarit the turncoat coupled with Chalerm making threats to silence and intimidate their opponents.

 

These tricks work because so many are 'at it" that the digging can soon turn something up if/when required. That's the game that's played.

 

Disbanding the NACC (and let's not pretend the DSI are better) and replacing them won't achieve diddly squat. The whole justice system needs reforming, from top to bottom. But no one as the appetite for that. Perhaps because none of them actually want to.

 

 

 

Well said.

 

And I add... There must be some fear (in every direction) that revealing something will quickly reveal connections to the wrongdoing. And with little doubt the web is as big as the whole www.

 

But that's no reason whatever to drop investigations, prosecutions, and punishments.