NLA endorses bill to set up the country's first criminal corruption court



BANGKOK: -- The National Legislative Assembly today (Thursday) overwhelmingly voted in support of a bill which seeks to create the country’s first criminal corruption court.

Proposed by the National Reform Steering Assembly, the bill is intended to cope with corruption problem which has, in recent years, become more serious, more widespread and more complicated and has caused extensive damages to the country. Also, court trials of corruption cases are time-consuming resulting to a backlog of cases left in courts.

Under the proposed bill, judges to be assigned to the criminal corruption court must have at least ten years of experience in the judicial affairs which will help in accelerating corruption cases.

The criminal corruption court will have two levels, the court of first instance and the appeals court. A special aspect of this proposed law is that in case a defendant or a suspect on corruption charges runs away, the statute of limitations of the case will not expire until the defendant or the suspect is brought to trial.

During a debate on the bill today, former graft buster and now a member of the NLA Mr Klanarong Chantik pointed out at what he deemed as a shortfall in the bill. He said the bill did not cover fringe benefits such as house rents and overtime pay claimed by senior officials.

A 15-member committee was formed by the NLA to scrutinize the bill.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/nla-endorses-bill-to-set-up-the-countrys-first-criminal-corruption-court


-- Thai PBS 2016-01-15

Next headline we will be hearing will be ? first criminal corruption court is being investigated for corruption .. only happens in los...

Edited January 14, 201610 yr by Nicolas32

Of course those in high places will be exempt, and there lies the biggest problem.

This court should be very busy for the next 150 years....

This is looking to be the biggest building in Thailand.

regards Worgeordie

This court should be very busy for the next 150 years....

And some...your not wrong...and with the appeal process and gathering of information ,forming committees it's just not going to happen...It needs too..but it's not !they only have to look around themselves to be inundated with likely candidates for charging.!

In a related story, a community of foxes has announced it will enhance the security features of local chicken coops.

I am particularly interested in what constitutes "criminal corruption" so that it can be heard by this court. Will there be such things as 'regular corruption', 'misdemeanor corruption' or 'excusable corruption' which will be ignored by this court ?

I suppose that time will tell, although if it is like most things that are presently being trumpeted, it will fade into obscurity before it actually.happens .

The key phrase in the announcement is: "A 15-member committee was formed by the NLA to scrutinize the bill"

Edited January 15, 201610 yr by tigermonkey

And how many judges will be appointed to judge millions of cases?

From the OP:

"Under the proposed bill, judges to be assigned to the criminal corruption court must have at least ten years of experience in the judicial affairs which will help in accelerating corruption cases."

So the best people for the new system are the ones who made the old system the success it is?

Funny how this post which at least, sets out to show that Thailand is serious about tackling corruption has only attracted 9 replies, yet the post about the threat to prosecute Hannah Witheridges' sister has attracted more than 10 pages (232 replies!)

IMHO, as far as the level of "non - interest" in this post is concerned shows a certain level of (deserved?) cynicism from TV readers/posters, whereas the level of interest and opinion shown in the latter post shows that there is more chance of the "Glee Club" adding their support to the B2 Koh Tao appeal than the RTP/Government have of prosecuting someone in the UK for criticising Thailand and its justice system!!

Edited January 15, 201610 yr by sambum

From the OP:

"Under the proposed bill, judges to be assigned to the criminal corruption court must have at least ten years of experience in the judicial affairs which will help in accelerating corruption cases."

So the best people for the new system are the ones who made the old system the success it is?

Proves this is nothing more than business as usual, with yet another circle of establishment figures roped in to sit around a table, getting their picture taken and making announcements to keep up appearances. We can expect them to go after political opponents and lower hanging fruit.

The park scandal is all we need to know about the true nature of current 'anti-corruption' efforts.

Funny how this post which at least, sets out to show that Thailand is serious about tackling corruption has only attracted 9 replies, yet the post about the threat to prosecute Hannah Witheridges' sister has attracted more than 10 pages (232 replies!)

Don't be silly. Laura is one of us and that story is astoundingly sickening in its entirety.

Furthermore, have you learned nothing about Thailand's ways? This sure does "set out to show" because 'show' is the modus operandi of the Thai elite in order to divert attention from the true content. How naive you are, unless you're a shill propagandist.

Edited January 15, 201610 yr by Squeegee

Meanwhile efforts to integrate and communicate with the rest of the world via English is ignored and jingoistic xenophobia prevails,

No wonder Anonymous has such easy pickings to hack at will.

A 7 year old could have expressed this better. It's utterly ludicrous that this is what gets spewed out as English by their own translators.

I cannot write Thai, so I don't.

They cannot write coherent English, but they do.

Proposed by the National Reform Steering Assembly, the bill is intended to cope with corruption problem which has, in recent years, become more serious, more widespread and more complicated and has caused extensive damages to the country. Also, court trials of corruption cases are time-consuming resulting to a backlog of cases left in courts.

More bureaucracy and conflicts of competence..

Is there really a need for this and does it facilitate the legal procedure or does it only make things more complicated?

And just because there is a brand new court does not automatically bring professional competence.

More bureaucracy and conflicts of competence..

Is there really a need for this and does it facilitate the legal procedure or does it only make things more complicated?

And just because there is a brand new court does not automatically bring professional competence.

Well of course it does! 'Second Hand Court' - Not so much. Yes. They really are that puddle depth ..

Funny how this post which at least, sets out to show that Thailand is serious about tackling corruption has only attracted 9 replies, yet the post about the threat to prosecute Hannah Witheridges' sister has attracted more than 10 pages (232 replies!)

Don't be silly. Laura is one of us and that story is astoundingly sickening in its entirety.

Furthermore, have you learned nothing about Thailand's ways? This sure does "set out to show" because 'show' is the modus operandi of the Thai elite in order to divert attention from the true content. How naive you are, unless you're a shill propagandist.

You obviously didn't read the edited version of my post, or have no appreciation of sarcasm! :-

IMHO, as far as the level of "non - interest" in this post is concerned shows a certain level of (deserved?) cynicism from TV readers/posters, whereas the level of interest and opinion shown in the latter post shows that there is more chance of the "Glee Club" adding their support to the B2 Koh Tao appeal than the RTP/Government have of prosecuting someone in the UK for criticising Thailand and its justice system!!

How are they going to know where to start? And how many years will they go back ? a non starter me-thinks.

Edited January 16, 201610 yr by andy8017

The most depressing part of the current "reform" efforts is their avoidance of the systemic issues.

There are many possible elements in a reform plan:

1. Changing the structure

2. Changing the rules (process)

3. Removing things that don't work

4. Adding new things

The current efforts are mostly #4.

The phrase "Rube Goldberg" comes to mind.

http://emergentuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Rube_Goldberg_Machine

Edited January 16, 201610 yr by phoenixdoglover