8 years in prison for ex-Yala governor over GT-200 bomb detector deal

[snoop1130]

Image Courtesy: Isra News

 

Former governor of Yala province, Thira Minthrasak, has been sentenced to 8 years in prison without suspension, after being found guilty of malfeasance by the Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases in connection with the purchase of fake bomb detectors, known as GT-200, more than a decade ago.

 

11 other officials who were involved in the deal, most of them retired, have also received sentences ranging from four years to eight months.

 

The National Anti-Corruption Commission found sufficient evidence to substantiate malfeasance charges against the 12 officials after the signing of two contracts to purchase the British-made GT-200 bomb detectors.

 

Full Story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/8-years-in-prison-for-ex-yala-governor-over-gt-200-bomb-detector-deal/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2023-05-03

 

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[hotchilli]

About time too... this was farcical to say the least.

[RobU]

Wow! corrupt officials actually being punished.

Interesting to note that their corrupt activity was against Thai interests and not fleecing foreigners

[klauskunkel]

12 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The National Anti-Corruption Commission found sufficient evidence to substantiate malfeasance charges against the 12 officials

Apparently the NACC did not find evidence against the military who spent the most on the "bomb detectors". 

[mikebell]

No Hi-So goes to jail (unless they've offended the higher-ups). By the time all the appeals have been heard all will have died of old age. LOL = Land of Lawyers.

[brianthainess]

And where did all the money go to, has any been retrieved. ?

[Gsxrnz]

I remember this case.  They were importing a hand-held device that was actually a modified golf ball detector.  Not sure if they bought them from the English couple that sold them to a good number of governments, but the whole incident was oh-so-typically-Thailand.

 

Here's a link about the matter from 2014. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-29459896

 

 

Edited May 4, 2023 by Gsxrnz

[GroveHillWanderer]

43 minutes ago, Gsxrnz said:

I remember this case.  They were importing a hand-held device that was actually a modified golf ball detector.  Not sure if they bought them from the English couple that sold them to a good number of governments, but the whole incident was oh-so-typically-Thailand.

 

Here's a link about the matter from 2014. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-29459896

 

 

Not sure about it being typically Thailand - as the BBC article shows, governments and security organisations all around the world were fooled into buying these useless devices.

 

UK government agencies and even UK military personnel were also used to helped promote the devices. So perhaps this was more typically British than anything else?

Edited May 4, 2023 by GroveHillWanderer

[nahkit]

What are the chances of anyone from the armed forces being held accountable?

[PETERTHEEATER]

42 minutes ago, nahkit said:

What are the chances of anyone from the armed forces being held accountable?

They would need to purchase the optional 'military personnel finder' card to install in their GT200 in order to locate them.

[GroveHillWanderer]

The article is a little vague, talking about "malfeasance" but I'm wondering what exactly the ex-governor (and the other officials) were found guilty of.

 

I thought the whole basis of this scam is that people were fooled into believing these devices worked. Was it the case that these local officials were guilty of more than just being gullible?

 

Were they for instance, supposed to have known that the devices were bogus but bought them anyway?