Court acquits Thaksin in TPI rehabilitation case

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Court acquits Thaksin in TPI rehabilitation case

By THE NATION

 

File photo: Thaksin Shinawatra

 

Says exPM showed no sign of gains, finds witnesses, evidence presented insufficient

 

THE SUPREME Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders yesterday acquitted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a malfeasance case, related to the 2003 rehabilitation of Thai Petrochemical Industry (TPI).

 

By majority vote, the court said Thaksin showed no intention of making any personal gains when he failed to veto a Finance Ministry plan to rehabilitate the financially troubled petrochemical giant.

 

The court said the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), which took the case to court, failed to produce witnesses and evidence that was convincing enough to prove the defendant had committed malfeasance as alleged. 

 

Following the 1997 financial crisis and subsequent devaluation of the Thai currency, TPI’s foreign debts doubled from Bt65 billion to Bt130 billion. The jump in the debt burden severely affected the company’s 7,000-plus employees. 

 

TPI’s top executive Prachai Leophairat and its labour union leaders later asked for assistance from the Finance Ministry.

 

The court also found that the Finance Ministry’s rehabilitation of the TPI came after consent from the company’s creditor banks, its executives and labour union, in line with an order from the Central Bankruptcy Court. At that time, the bankruptcy court agreed that the ministry should take charge of TPI’s rehabilitation to protect the country’s economy and prevent an important industry from falling into the hands of foreigners.

 

It was found that the defendant did not make any personal gains from the subsequent sale of TPI shares as part of a capital increase. A regulation at the time stated that such shares must be sold to agencies under the Finance Ministry’s control only, including PTT, Government Saving Bank and Government Pension Fund.

 

The court also did not find Prachai’s testimony convincing. 

 

Prachai claimed he was told by a government official at the time, “My boss wants TPI”, supposedly referring to Thaksin. The court said this claim “did not carry much weight”.

 

The NACC working group on the case is going to consider whether to appeal the verdict, senior NACC official Pannapong Chanphetkul said after learning about the court’s ruling. The NACC has 30 days to appeal the case.

 

This case was previously suspended after Thaksin fled the country in 2008, shortly before the same court sentenced him to two years in jail for abuse of power while in office. The trial was resumed after an amendment to the Act on the Criminal Procedures for Holders of Political Offices promulgated last year allowed the court to conduct hearings in absentia. 

 

The NACC in 2010 found the former PM in breach of Article 157 of the Criminal Code that prohibits malfeasance, by having then-finance minister Suchart Chaovisith head the rehabilitation plan for TPI. 

 

As TPI was a private company, it was beyond the finance minister’s purview because of the scope to influence his ministerial work, the NACC argued. 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/politics/30353282

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-08-30

[Samui Bodoh]

I don't particularly care about Thaksin, but I take great joy that this will give Prayut and Prawit an ulcer!

 

 

BTW, it seems like the courts have ruled 'against' the Junta a bit recently, more than I remember from the early days after the coup. Anyone have any idea why? Coincidence or on purpose? Any thoughts? Any significance?

 

 

 

[zzaa09]

In a related note: 

The Shinawatras will return sooner than not, stirring harmony and goodness among the masses.

 

?

[SABloke]

2 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

I don't particularly care about Thaksin, but I take great joy that this will give Prayut and Prawit an ulcer!

 

 

BTW, it seems like the courts have ruled 'against' the Junta a bit recently, more than I remember from the early days after the coup. Anyone have any idea why? Coincidence or on purpose? Any thoughts? Any significance?

 

 

 

It's like when the NLA vote 187 - 3 for something - it's to make it appear like a legitimate entity. Everyone now and then the courts will acquit an enemy - especially if that enemy is already guilty of other crimes and not in the country. The want to look impartial.

[yellowboat]

It may signal that change is in the air.  Prem sent the first signal some time ago.  At the same time, the ruling could be based on facts.   If more of the same keeps happening, Prem pipes up and there is descent in the ranks, Prayuth's time in office will be relegated to history's dust bin where it belongs.  He conquered for no good reason at all, and left a legacy of denial and rigging in parliament for the benefit of the few.  If people are getting tired, who could blame them.  The future is not hard to see.  

[sungod]

Just means he was in cahoots with someone currently in favor over this one. Shouldn't analysis it too deeply.

[zaphod reborn]

Of course, a real court of law would have convicted Thaksin in abstentia.  Attendance at criminal trials is always mandatory in the real world and absence results in default for failure to defend the charges, which is conviction.

[mfd101]

The winds are shifting.

[Samui Bodoh]

5 hours ago, SABloke said:

It's like when the NLA vote 187 - 3 for something - it's to make it appear like a legitimate entity. Everyone now and then the courts will acquit an enemy - especially if that enemy is already guilty of other crimes and not in the country. The want to look impartial.

Good post!

 

I can't really argue with you as you make a compelling case, but my political "Spidey Sense" (From the Spiderman films/comics) tells me that your answer isn't correct, or more accurately, is not entirely correct.

 

I am wondering, as @mfd101 hints at, if there is a beginning of a push back against Prayut, Prawit and their cronies.

 

There are a couple of reasons I am thinking that; the Junta/Military are amassing a great deal of power for themselves and if I were a civilian HiSo I would be getting worried. Yes, perhaps to date the Junta has been... malleable, but were they to claim a Democratic mandate for themselves, their power would go up exponentially. Further, I imagine that the HiSos have been able to hold an economic "Sword of Damocles" over the Junta's proverbial head, but the longer the Junta stays in power, the longer it appoints its loyalists to key positions, and the more its future gets intertwined within the economy, the stronger they get and conversely the weaker the HiSos become. Are the HiSos getting worried about losing control? This is a time of great historical change, and in times of great historical change, great changes in traditional power structures often take place.

 

What would I do in a situation like this? I would start (subtly) strengthening the hand of the Junta's number one enemy to ensure that no one side gets a monopoly on power. What is the best way to enhance the Junta's number one enemy? Subtly undercut the notion that Thaksin and the "Reds" are criminals, but rather political opponents who are being 'mistreated'. No one will ever believe that that either side is free from stain and/or taint, but if both sides were regarded as equally despicable, then one of the core arguments of the coup itself is undercut. Secondly, I would begin to plant stories in the newspapers and other media that people are getting tired of the Junta; anyone else notice that we are seeing a few more of those recently? Third, I would figure out ways to make them look incompetent; the "run-up" to the election seems to be spectacularly mismanaged and I wonder if there is a reason behind it. The Junta has known that they need an election for a long time now, why does it seem to be so incompetent? Why are the "rules" just being figured out now? Frankly, why aren't they cheating more (yes, I know, but they actually COULD cheat more)? This is a pre-election time where the Junta should be firing on all cylinders, the economy should be rising to a crescendo, and happiness should be breaking out across the land, but it isn't. Perhaps there is a reason that it isn't...

 

All the above makes my cynical, conspiracy-minded thoughts get a twirling.

 

Anyone else?

 

 

[Esso49]

4 hours ago, yellowboat said:

It may signal that change is in the air.  Prem sent the first signal some time ago.  At the same time, the ruling could be based on facts.   If more of the same keeps happening, Prem pipes up and there is descent in the ranks, Prayuth's time in office will be relegated to history's dust bin where it belongs.  He conquered for no good reason at all, and left a legacy of denial and rigging in parliament for the benefit of the few.  If people are getting tired, who could blame them.  The future is not hard to see.  

I agree and I think Prem ,  and of course the other puppet masters can see that whilst the Junta has enriched themselves and of course those above,  they can see the tide turning. Whilst they would wish to keep the peasents poor,  censor the free press, then some of them,  Junta excluded, are not that stupid and know full well that one day the people will rise up.  The junta and those  above  must be running scared that, should this be the case,  all of the Elite are at personal risk,  something they seek to deflect.  Hence this is why the supreme court have possibly been instructed to ignore the Juntas vendetta against Thaksin, which despite all the pompousTV members,  is still by far the most popular politician in Thailand.  Basically they are running scared from possibly a deserved moral and physical retribution.

[Eric Loh]

5 hours ago, yellowboat said:

It may signal that change is in the air.  Prem sent the first signal some time ago.  At the same time, the ruling could be based on facts.   If more of the same keeps happening, Prem pipes up and there is descent in the ranks, Prayuth's time in office will be relegated to history's dust bin where it belongs.  He conquered for no good reason at all, and left a legacy of denial and rigging in parliament for the benefit of the few.  If people are getting tired, who could blame them.  The future is not hard to see.  

I think you got most of it right. Lately there are more court rulings in favour of those accused of anti- junta protests and cases of court denying charges by the RTP of democracy activists. Then this case of a jailed LM activist pardoned. Totally unexpected stuff. Also more ex-generals like Chavalit speaking out against the junta. The mistake Prayut make is that he stayed in power too long and exposes his inability to govern and exposes his generals corruption. However I differ with you on who at the top may be asserting pressure. Not the one you hint as he is not like by his master and many of his duties have been stripped. 

[metisdead]

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[FritsSikkink]

9 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

I don't particularly care about Thaksin, but I take great joy that this will give Prayut and Prawit an ulcer!

 

 

BTW, it seems like the courts have ruled 'against' the Junta a bit recently, more than I remember from the early days after the coup. Anyone have any idea why? Coincidence or on purpose? Any thoughts? Any significance?

 

 

 

Or maybe the courts give justice, he was guilty in a couple of other cases and not in this one. 

[mfd101]

Positioning: You place yourself delicately in the middle of the spectrum (or spectra) and then you can handle whatever an uncertain future brings. Welcome Thaksin's reappearance, hail Prayut's eternal continuation, embrace the New Socialism, praise the Old Feudalism ... reasoned & sensible for all, mastered by none.

[zzaa09]

8 hours ago, sungod said:

Just means he was in cahoots with someone currently in favor over this one. Shouldn't analysis it too deeply.

Actually, one needn't analyze the Thai political circus too deeply in any form. 

Tends to be most predictable, be it of literal or figurative nature.

 

Theatre of the redundant. Only the players change.

[candide]

12 hours ago, SABloke said:

It's like when the NLA vote 187 - 3 for something - it's to make it appear like a legitimate entity. Everyone now and then the courts will acquit an enemy - especially if that enemy is already guilty of other crimes and not in the country. The want to look impartial.

My guess is that there is a major conviction planned already.

They did the same with YL. Acquit of a minor offense before the real fun starts.