Pheu Thai Party figure and staunch regime critic Watana Muangsook has criticised the anti-graft agency for unfairly probing him over alleged irregularities related to a low-cost housing project.
Watana: Claims foul play
He was speaking Monday with public prosecutors scheduled to decide whether to indict him tomorrow.
Mr Watana said that the now-defunct Assets Scrutiny Committee (ASC) forwarded the case against him and others to the Office of the Attorney-General (OAG) in 2008 as the ASC's term ended on June 30 that year. The ASC was set up after the 2006 coup to handle alleged corruption cases against the ousted Thaksin Shinawatra government.
Mr Watana said that at the time the prosecution considered the ASC's investigation to be incomplete and called for a joint panel to be formed with the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) to work on the case.
The NACC then forwarded its findings to the OAG in November 2016 after the commission resolved to implicate Mr Watana in the Eua Arthorn housing case for violating Sections 148 and 149 of the Criminal Code.
He said the NACC recently wrote to ask him to meet the OAG and claimed the prosecution would indict him tomorrow.
It has taken 12 years for authorities to investigate the case even though it is not complicated, he noted. If there really was a sound reason to implicate him, action should have been taken long ago, he said.
Mr Watana, who has been among the most vocal of critics of the military regime since the 2014 coup, said he suspected any indictment would be politically motivated.
He claimed that NACC member Narong Rathamarit, who handled the case, did not allow him access to information regarding the case, which violated the rule of law and his right to a fair trial.
While serving as social development and human security minister in the Thaksin government, Mr Watana allegedly abused his power and demanded bribe payments in connection with the "Eua Arthorn" housing project.
If found guilty of violating the Criminal Code for abuse of state authority, he faces a prison term ranging from five years to life and a fine of between 100,000 baht and 400,000 baht.
