“We have to see who exactly filed the lawsuit and what the charges were. Why did Thailand not do anything about it and is it too late to do something now?” he queried.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has assigned Wissanu to deal with legal issues and see if compensation can be claimed after a court in Britain ruled last week that James McCormick, who began serving a 10-year jail term for selling the dud devices in 2013, forfeited around Bt375 million to his customers.

“If Thailand claims too little in compensation or if we are not granted any, can we file a complaint based on the UK court ruling? If we have to file a new suit, then this court ruling would be used as evidence,” he said.

Wissanu added that Thai state agencies had suffered damages of between Bt600 million and Bt800 million from buying these dud devices.

He said he would hold a meeting with all concerned agencies, including the eight that bought the device as well as the Office of the Attorney-General, the Office of the Auditor-General, the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC), the Defence and Foreign ministries.

He said the meeting would focus on the compensation and not discuss corruption in the purchase of the devices. He said the corruption side of things does not need to be treated as a special case and that the Anti-Corruption Operation Centre and NACC would look into the irregularities related to the GT200 purchase.

“The two agencies will coordinate to get the information they need,” Wissanu explained.

He added that there was a statute of limitations on this case, and that he would decide whether a compensation claim should be filed through a Thai or British court.

He said the agencies that bought the devices could also sue the sales agent in Thailand. He added that the UK court had made the ruling because affected countries had filed a lawsuit against the producer of the bogus devices.

PACC secretary-general Prayong Preeyajit said the Office of the Auditor-General will submit information on the case to the Anti-Corruption Operation Centre of which he serves as secretary, and then this data will be forwarded to Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya. The minister will then call a meeting with concerned agencies to look into alleged irregularities in the purchase of the devices.

A source said the Royal Thai Air Force and the Office of the Narcotics Control Board were the two agencies that had purchased the faulty devices but did not file any complaints.

Yingluck had accused Jirachai Moonthongroi, chairman of a government committee that investigated the rice-pledging scheme, of violating Criminal Code Section 157 by holding her responsible for massive compensation of state losses but her case was dismissed.

According to Yingluck’s defence team, Jirachai did not carry out the investigation in line with the law and failed to interview defence witnesses sufficiently.

The case also alleged that Jirachai did not check rice inventory figures properly so the estimate of damages resulting from the scheme was not accurate.

In addition, the Jirachai committee did not identify which agencies were at fault in implementing the scheme and instead blamed the entire Yingluck-led government for the damages, the lawyers said.

Since the pledging scheme was a policy aimed at helping farmers, the former prime minister could not be held directly responsible for the damages, they added.

Yingluck’s lawsuit against Jirachai was dismissed on June 10 but the Appeals Court has not set a date to hear the case.

According to the government’s committee on civil liability, the rice-pledging scheme resulted in losses of more than Bt500 billion due to the high prices set by the government to buy rice from farmers, even though the global market price was significantly lower.

There was not a limit on the quantity of rice the government would buy so farmers were encouraged to grow as much as they could, which resulted in losses for taxpayers.

RED-SHIRT leaders yesterday filed a petition with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), asking for an investigation into the shutting down of their referendum anti-fraud monitoring centres.

United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) leaders, including Jatuporn Prompan, Nattawut Saikua and Korkaew Pikulthong, filed the petition with NHRC’s Angkana Neelapaijit.

Angkana said the commission had previously expressed concerns about the regulations for the referendum set by the Election Commission, as they were far too strict and did not allow open debate.

She said the NHRC would call on relevant individuals to explain the issue, which may take a while. “We will complete this case as quickly as possible,” she added.

Some 50 police officers were present at the NHRC office when the UDD leaders visited to hand in the petition.

‘Atmosphere of fear’

Jatuporn said yesterday that the government was creating an “atmosphere of fear” by arresting UDD members who wanted to scrutinise the referendum.

Nattawut, meanwhile, said the human rights situation in Thailand was in a crisis. “People’s rights have been restricted and many of them got arrested or detained. In a crisis like this, under this post-coup government, what can the NHRC do?” he asked.

Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said yesterday that no matter how the Constitutional Court rules next week on a controversial clause in the referendum law, the referendum on the draft charter would not be affected.

He insisted that the August 7 referendum would go ahead uninterrupted even if the court finds the second paragraph of Article 61 unconstitutional.

“Even if the entire paragraph is lost, Article 61 will remain. In fact, paragraph two is just an addition to paragraph one in the article,” Wissanu pointed out.

The Constitutional Court is scheduled to issue a verdict on the issue next Wednesday.

The Ombudsman’s Office had called on the court to determine if the second paragraph of Article 61 of the Referendum Act was constitutional.

The clause in question prohibits the dissemination of untrue, provocative, vulgar and aggressive messages through the media, while the post-coup interim charter guarantees human dignity, rights, liberties and equality.

Wissanu, who is in charge of the government’s legal affairs, told reporters at Government House yesterday that with just the first paragraph left, Article 61 could be interpreted by relevant authorities “in a wider and more dangerous manner”.

He also warned people to avoid the risk of violating the referendum law. “There’s a group of people who want to take risks and they will have to accept the consequences,” he said.

Wissanu maintained that the government did not prohibit criticism of the draft charter provided it is done honestly, citing some critical newspaper columns.

Separately, in a Facebook post yesterday, Suthep Thaugsuban, leader of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee, said he would vote “yes” in the referendum and will hold a live Facebook broadcast on the subject at 2pm every day from today onwards.

 

The letter was issued on February 25 by the working group on arbitrary detention of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and five special rapporteurs but has just been made publicly available on the office’s online database.

The letter said the 26 people, 15 of whom were tried in military courts, were accused of breaking the two laws because they “allegedly exercised their right to freedom of opinion and expression”.

The Criminal Code’s Article 112 regarding lese majeste outlaws defaming, insulting or threatening their Majesties, the royal heir or the regent. Offenders face three to 15 years in jail.

The Computer Crime Act’s Article 14 prohibits online content that is judged to be seditious or damaging the Kingdom’s security. Offenders face up to five years in jail or a fine of up to Bt100,000 or both.

Notably, the two laws have been used simultaneously against the purveyors or distributors of online content deemed critical of the sovereign state or the royal institution or both.

The number of people charged under these laws has increased since the junta came to power in 2014, with people charged for acts such as sharing content on social media, exchanging messages in one-on-one online conversations, and even pressing the “Like” button on Facebook.

In the letter, the working group and the special rapporteurs also expressed “particular concern at the continued restrictions on multiple rights and fundamental guarantees”.

This includes the freedom of expression rights of political opponents in the Kingdom following the 2014 coup, it said.

Expressing “grave concern” over the trials before military courts, the OHCHR appealed to the military-installed government to take measures to guarantee the rights of people in detention so they were not deprived of their liberty and had fair proceedings before tribunals.

It is also extremely concerned about not releasing people on bail in lese majeste cases, including individuals who require special medical attention.

The OHCHR ended the letter by asking the government to provide additional information on and clarification of its concerns, stressing that it is ready to provide technical assistance.

It also requested that the letter be shared with high-ranking junta figures including Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha and his deputy and Defence Minister, General Prawit Wongsuwan.

However, when asked about the letter, Government Deputy Spokesman Maj-General Wera-chon Sukondhapatipak said the administration had not heard about it.

“But we always explain about the necessity to put individuals accused of violating the lese majeste law before military courts. They function totally like any other courts. It is just our rules concerning the current situation,” Werachon told The Nation.

NRSA vice chairman Alongkorn Ponlaboot said the first meeting would be held on Wednesday withDemocrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, adding that the NRSA was working on scheduling more meetings with other major parties.

It would also invite small parties (around 50) to meet with it at Parliament, Alongkorn said.

So far, the NRSA has completed 74 reform reports and submitted them to the government for consideration and implementation by concerned agencies.

It has set a new framework to complete the work under the 37 reform agendas produced by the now-defunct National Reform Council. This would last three months, Alongkorn said.

The NRSA also plans to expand its reform network by establishing around 50 reform institutes nationwide, plus a Reform Community in every province, and up to 1,000 reform leaders.

Meanwhile, the NRSA’s forestry reform expenditure committee resolved to expedite the reform of the sector using real-time satellite data feeds showing forest encroachments via the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency to help improve ground checks of encroachments.

The committee’s chair Yongyuth Sarasombath said the urgent reform agenda measure was designed to help close a loophole in the ongoing reform of the whole sector.

He said it would help improve forest authorities’ work in stemming the encroachment problem, giving them the most updated information in regards to the loss of forests and those responsible for it.

“With such improved data, we can learn about the latest information concerning the loss of a forest within two days, and get verification by ground checks within another five days, not years like before” Yongyuth said.