Before the attorney-general (AG) announces a decision on whether to indict paroled ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra on lèse majesté charges on Wednesday, a former Democrat MP asked the AG to confirm his predecessor’s decision to indict.
In the letter, Watchara Petthong said that Thaksin, after being informed of the lèse majesté charges against him by the police in Januar, appealed to the incumbent attorney-general, Amnat Chetcharoenrak, for justice.
He cited additional witnesses in his defence, among them an army general, a politician and the secretary-general of a governing coalition party.
The Democrat claims that these witnesses were made up or had vested interests with Thaksin.
He also said that, previously, some attorneys-general had helped Thaksin and his family by not indicting them, not appealing the verdicts in their favour to higher courts or letting the cases against them reach their statute of limitations.
One former attorney-general, Chaikasem Nitisiri, was one of the Pheu Thai party’s candidates for the premiership, said Watchara.
Some political commentators predict that Thaksin will be indicted this Wednesday, as a warning to him not to overstep the allegedly secret deal he made with the conservative elites, which paved the way for his return to Thailand after a long self-imposed exile and the privileges that he has enjoyed since, such as a Royal commutation of his prison term from 8 years to one, not spending a day in prison, but at the Police General Hospital, and his early parole.
File photo : Thaksin Shinawatra//AFP
