South-East Asia (Page 1,967)

The Constitutional Court on Wednesday rejected a request from the election winning Move Forward Party to review a parliamentary decision that blocked its prime ministerial candidate from being re-nominated.

The move all but kills off any hope of the progressive Move Forward leading the next government and paves the way for the legislature to hold another vote on a prime minister as soon as this week.

The court said its decision was unanimous.

The court in its decision said it declined to accept the case because it was lodged by a group of more than 20 individuals that did not include the prime ministerial candidate himself. “Their rights were not violated and they did not have the rights to file the complaint,” it said.

Allies of Move Forward had petitioned the court to decide on the legality of a July 19 decision by lawmakers to prevent Pita from being nominated for premier for a second time after his failure at the first attempt.

Parliament is now expected to schedule a vote within days on the prime ministerial candidacy of businessman and political neophyte Srettha Thavisin, of the second-place Pheu Thai Party.

Move Forward won the May election with huge youth and urban support for its liberal policy platform, posing a threat to business monopolies and the military’s political power.

But its effort to form a government failed to win enough support, with broad opposition to its plan, especially among military-appointed senators, to amend the lese majeste law to prevent it being used for purely political purposes.

Police have closed their investigation into the murder of a Colombian plastic surgeon on Koh Phangan, even though most of the victim’s body, allegedly dismembered by his partner, remains unaccounted for.

Deputy national police chief Pol Gen Surachate Hakparn told reporters on Tuesday that after wo weeks of intense work, the investigation into the murder and dismembering of Edwin Arrieta Arteaga, 44, had been closed.

Arrieta was believed murdered on Koh Phangan on Aug 1, allegedly by his boyfriend, Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, 29, a popular YouTube chef and son of Spanish actor Rodolfo Sancho Aguirre and actress Silvia Bronchalo.

According to Pol Gen Surachate, who led the investigationm, the suspect arrived in Thailand on July 31, the day before Arrieta. They planned to meet on Koh Phangan on Aug 2 so Arrieta booked a hotel room for them both to stay in. However, Mr Sancho also had a room booked at a different hotel, where he later allegedly killed his lover.

Police charge that Mr Sancho cut the body into 17 parts, some of which he stuffed into a duffel bag he threw into the sea. The rest he allegedly put in a trash bag that he dumped at the tambon Koh Phangan Municipal Solid Waste Management Centre. These remains were discovered by local trash pickers on Aug 3.

Pol Gen Surachate said investigators believed the murder was premeditated. There was evidence Mr Sancho had bought a long knife, plastic bags, cleaning solutions and rubber gloves on Aug 1. Police also found bloodstains, human tissue, grease marks and hair while searching the hotel room.

Mr Sancho has acknowledged charges of premeditated murder, concealing and/or removing body parts to cover up a death or cause of death, according to police.

Pol Gen Surachate said the Royal Thai Police will ask the Colombian embassy to contact Arrieta’s family so they can claim his remains.

Questions Srettha’s legitimacy for PM

Political activist and whistle-blower Chuvit Kamolvisit alleged on Tuesday that the property developer Sansiri Plc nominated a housekeeper and a security guard to take out a 1-billion-baht loan from a subsidiary to purchase land in the Thong Lor area of Bangkok.

Mr Chuvit hosted a press conference to reveal the alleged shareholding fraud of Sansiri, which was operating under its former CEO, Srettha Thavisin, now the prime ministerial candidate of the Pheu Thai Party.

Mr Chuvit claimed Sansiri used these two nominees — a housekeeper and a security guard — to take out a 1-billion-baht loan from its subsidiary to pay a landowner 565 million baht. He said no one appears to know what the rest of money was spent on.

The housekeeper was later identified as Ms Pinit (surname not disclosed), who lives in Maha Sarakham province.

She was found to have held 99% of the shares in the subsidiary, but there was no recorded data of her making corporate tax payments.

Another nominee — a security guard identified as Mr Somsak (surname also withheld) — was found to have owned 1% of the company.

He was also listed as the board member of five firms, including a transport service company associated with another Sansiri project.

Mr Chuvit said after the subsidiary sold the plot to Sansiri, the company was abandoned.

In light of this, Mr Chuvit asked whether Mr Srettha was qualified to serve as the next prime minister — if his government was going to be overseen by nominees.

“I will ask the Stock Exchange of Thailand to check on the governance of Sansiri and ask the Senate for a review of Mr Srettha’s qualifications [to become PM],” he said.

Pheu Thai deputy leader Phumtham Wechayachai said Mr Srettha’s qualifications would be reviewed according to the relevant regulations.

He also expressed confidence Pheu Thai could garner more than the 375 votes it needs for Mr Srettha to become prime minister and for the party to form a new government, adding it is in talks with the Palang Pracharath Party and United Thai Nation Party about serving as coalition allies.

Last week, Mr Srettha sued Mr Chuvit for 500 million baht for defamation over comments made about another land purchased earlier by Sansiri.

Mr Chuvit implied Sansiri had attempted to dodge paying taxes.

Paetongtarn ‘Ung Ing’ Shinawatra, head of the Pheu Thai Family, has flown to Dubai to take her father, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, to see an ophthalmologist.

Ms Paetongtarn made the announcement about helping her father via her Instagram account on Tuesday. She also posted an Instagram story with a background song Que Sera, Sera (Whatever will be, will be).

Her latest trip to Dubai, where Thaksin has been residing, came after the fugitive former premier said on Aug 5 that he was putting off his return from self-exile because he needed a medical checkup first.

Thaksin fled Thailand in 2008, shortly before the Supreme Court convicted him for helping his then-wife, Khunying Potjaman Na Pombejra, buy prime land in the Ratchadaphisek area at a discount while he was prime minister. Thaksin posted on X (formerly Twitter) that he had originally planned to return to Thailand by Aug 10, but that now needed to be put back by a couple of weeks.