Outcome criticisms spur Naree response
Attorney-General (AG) Naree Tantasathien has ordered her office to set up panels to review five criminal cases that may have been overlooked by her predecessors.
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This comes after criticism that the outcomes may have tainted the reputation of the Office of the Attorney-General (OAG).
The order was made on Tuesday in response to recent news highlighting the need for the country’s first female AG to clear up doubts raised over the cases before she retires in seven months, said OAG deputy spokesman Kosolwat Inthuchanyong.
He said the order was issued after complaints regarding the cases were submitted to the OAG by various parties, including former massage parlour tycoon and ex-politician Chuvit Kamolvisit.
The first case involved Chinese-born businessman and suspected crime boss Chaiyanat “Tuhao” Kornchayanant and his wife, Pol Col Wanthanaree Kornchayanant.
They were accused of being the masterminds behind the April 23, 2012, arson attack on a snake park owned by the Phuket Healthy Nutriment Co in Phuket province. A security guard, was injured in the attack and left disabled.
Former AG Wongsakun Kittiphromwong decided in February 2020 not to arraign these suspects.
The second case involved CPK International Co, an affiliate of a firm owned by construction tycoon Premchai Karnasuta, now in jail for poaching in the Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary, and other parties.
They were accused in 2018 of encroaching on 6,229 rai of forest land in Loei’s Phue Reau and Dan Sai districts but weren’t indicted.
The third case involved Thaenthai Narongkul, who in 2020 was accused of laundering tens of billions of baht on an online gambling site.
AG Somkit Saicharoen, however, on Feb 8 last year told the Royal Thai Police the former attorney-general had resolved not to indict the suspect on a money-laundering charge.
The fourth case involved the online gambling website mawinbet.com.
It was found after a crackdown in October 2020 — which netted four suspects — that operators allegedly had tens of billions of baht in circulation. However, former AG Singchai Thaninson last year decided not to take the case to trial, citing a lack of evidence.
The fifth case involved 400,000 meth tablets found during a Nonthaburi crackdown in which former AG Wongsakun Kittiphromwong, reversed a prosecutor’s decision to indict suspects who later fled the country.