Department chief Ruenwadee Suwanmongkol said yesterday that the agency aimed to boost the value of total sales by 30 per cent in the second quarter.

During the first quarter, the agency also successfully arbitrated 2,800 disputed cases out of the assigned 3,205 cases, involving Bt1 billion in assets, she added.

Ruenwadee said three arbitration sessions to aid flood-affected debtors would be held in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Songkhla and Surat Thani.

Chulalongkorn Hospital director Dr Suttipong Wacharasindhu confirmed Chanchai’s death yesterday morning. “We will provide details later,” he said.

The bathing ritual for Chanchai will take place at Wat Benjamaborphit tonight.

Chanchai had served as privy councillor under both the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, and current monarch His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

Before he joined the Privy Council, Chanchai was Supreme Court president. He was also the Justice Minister in General Surayud Chulanont’s government.

Jatupat’s lawyer, Pawinee Chumsri, said concerned authorities had concluded that the activist, also known as Pai Daodin, could take his exams in prison at the end of this month and next month.

Jatupat needs to appear for his computer exam to graduate from the university. One examination, at the end of this month, would be a written test while next month he would have to take an operational test for which the activist would need to have access to a computer.

Earlier, it was reported that Jatupat’s school – the Faculty of Law – would arrange for him to take the exams in prison on Tuesday and Wednesday if his bail plea was rejected by the court. However, dean of the faculty Kiitibodi Yaipool denied the reports.

The dean said that he had visited the student activist in prison only to discuss a school issue and had suggested to him that he appeal to the university to hold a special exam for him.

Jatupat is the only person charged with a violation of the lese majeste law and the Computer Crime Act, in early December, for sharing a BBC Thai article about the monarchy on his Facebook page. More than 2,000 others had also shared the same article. He was initially released on Bt400,000 bail.

A Khon Kaen police officer later filed a petition with the court, saying Jatupat continued to incite the public on social media and he could tamper with evidence if he were to remain free. Further posts on his Facebook page while on bail were seen to have ridiculed authorities.

The court cancelled the bail, saying he had violated the bail agreement. The Appeal Court upheld the first court’s ruling and the Supreme Court later upheld rulings by both courts.

Earlier this month, Jatupat’s legal team made another attempt to secure bail but the application was rejected.

Meanwhile, pro-democracy group New Democracy Movement (NDM) and Resistant Netizen yesterday staged a symbolic demonstration calling for his release.

Fellow activists and Jatupat’s family were worried that he would not be able to graduate this year, as the final examination was scheduled for this month while he was still in jail.

Yesterday’s protest included a small political speech calling for Jatupat’s release. The demonstrators also held banners that read “Free Pai” and showed messages of his right to get bail.

Dozens of police officers were deployed at the demonstration, which was held at the skywalk near Ratchaprasong Junction.

Pro-democracy activists also showed solidarity with Jatupat on social media using the hashtag #FreePai, calling on the authorities to release him on bail so that the activist could take his final examination.

International rights organisations, including the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, urged the government to review cases of all individuals charged with lese majeste and requested Jatupat’s release on bail so that he could take his examination at Khon Kaen University.

General Ekachai Srivilas, a former member of the National Reform Council (NRC), said various studies on the issue that could prove useful had been carried out previously, and the government should consider them to implement recommendations.

“I believe that if the government is determined enough, the task could be accomplished within this year as aimed for,” said Ekachai, who is also director of peace and governance at the King Prajadhipok Research Institute.

The past studies, praised by many peace advocates for their thoroughness, include a report done after the 2010 crackdown on red-shirt protesters by the Truth for Reconciliation Commission, chaired by the legal expert Kanit Na Nakorn, and a report prepared by the NRC’s reconciliation study committee.

The government has launched a renewed effort towards reconciliation along with other reforms and national strategy development by creating a new super-structure overseeing work done by various disparate agencies. Authorities have said they expected tangible outcomes before the government leaves office.

The new structure – known as the administrative committee for reform, reconciliation and national strategy – will have key committees in charge of each area of work, including reconciliation. Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha, in his capacity as head of the National Council for Peace and Order, issued a new order under Article 44 to put it into effect on Tuesday.

Ekachai said reconciliation should be open to all sides and he supported the idea of the government giving politicians and other concerned groups the opportunity for talks. However, the project should address clearly the means and goals, he added.

“At least, it should say clearly that it will give a chance for political parities to have a meeting and propose ideas to the government,” he said.

Ekachai said efforts in the past failed because of the lack of tolerance of different views, biases and the lack of a shared vision for the future.

He said these were issues should be paid attention to in the latest efforts. Reconciliation, he added, needed to be carried out for all groups – from leaders to ordinary citizens, and in every legal step, with amnesty being the last point.

“Importantly, all sides should take part. My experience is reconciliation cannot be achieved by power and orders,” said Ekachai, alluding to the observation that the newly appointed panel to realise reconciliation was dominated by senior officials.

Meanwhile, Supreme Commander General Surapong Suwana-adth said during a ceremony on Thai Armed Forces Day that the Army would fully back the government’s initiative, saying the problems needed to be fixed together as focusing on only certain areas of work would not see much progress.

“It’s like our car gets stuck in a mud. You cannot pull only one wheel to get the car out of it, but four at once,” said Surapong.

POLICE YESTERDAY revealed information they claimed proved a network of people set up evidence that backed former teacher Jomsap Saenmuangkhot’s claim of innocence in a 2005 fatal hit-and-run accident.

Police deputy spokesman Kritsana Pattanacharoen said police would sue members of the network for compensation for tarnishing the police force’s image if their involvement is proved illegal.

Police Inspector-General Pol General Panya Mamen said police found that after the Supreme Court issued its ruling, a group of seven people in late 2013 brought a man to the Nakhon Phanom’s Renu Nakhon Police Station maintaining that he was actually the driver of the pick-up truck involved in the accident. The unidentified man was not Sap Wapi, another man who has since confessed to being the driver in the fatal accident.

Officers told the group that the case was not in that precinct’s jurisdiction and reported the incident to the Nakhon Phanom provincial police office.

Later the group, in a separate event, brought the man for an unnamed police colonel to question him, Panya said.

Panya said other inconsistencies were found by Provincial Police Region 4 investigators who checked the ownership of the pickup truck with the licence plate “Bor Khor 56 Mukdahan”. Sap later claimed to have driven the pick-up, which killed elderly bicyclist Lua Phorbumrung in 2005.

Panya said, however, that Sap’s name was not on the vehicle’s registration documents between 2004 and 2009.

Police have already obtained information about members of the network and have interviewed the first man who confessed to being the driver. He said police were investigating how the network members might benefit from Jomsap’s exoneration and “all would be clearer” in a couple of days.

February hearings

Panya said he instructed the assistant to the national police chief, Pol Lt-General Manu Mekmok, to join yesterday’s meeting of the police team investigating the new evidence that had been cited in calls for a retrial.

Panya claimed the group had consulted with a former senator who had warned them not to proceed with their plan as it would be illegal to give false information to authorities, including police and the court.

Former Mukdahan senator Pol Lt-Colonel Jit Sriyohamukdathanapong said he was approached by 10 people seeking his advice and legal aid on behalf of Jomsap, who was at the time in prison and facing a serious disciplinary probe. Jit said he told them he could not help because the Supreme Court had already rendered a ruling.

The 54-year-old former Sakhon Nakhon teacher was sentenced to three years and two months in prison for reckless driving causing Lua’s death. She was granted a royal pardon in April 2015 after serving 18 months behind bars.

Permanent Secretary for Justice Ministry Chanchao Chaiyanukit has instructed officials not to engage in arguments about the case to prevent inter-agency conflicts and added that it would be up to the court’s discretion whether the case would be reopened.

He said the ministry’s Justice Fund would provide Jomsap with legal-aid expenses for the witness hearings to be held between February 8 and 10.

The Justice Fund will also help to mediate a separate legal dispute over a loan repayment between Jomsap and the teachers’ saving cooperative.

Deputy Permanent Secretary for the Justice Ministry Pol Colonel Dusadee Arayawuth said the ministry would present three new witnesses and evidence at the hearings to prove Jomsap’s innocence and convince the court to order a retrial. He said the witnesses and evidence were credible and had not been presented to the court previously.

Department of Special Investigation chief Pol Colonel Paisit Wongmuang said his agency yesterday received a request from the Justice Ministry for a witness-protection detail for Jomsap. He assigned a panel to determine if Jomsap’s case fitted the criteria for protection.