A former director-general of Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation (DSI), Tarit Pengdit, was escorted to Bangkok Remand Prison this evening (Monday), to serve a two-year prison sentence, after the Supreme Court upheld the Appeals Court’s sentence.
The Supreme Court’s decision was read by the Criminal Court after the former dismissed all the petitions lodged by Tarit, one of which sought a ruling from the Charter Court on the constitutionality of Sections 157 and 200 of the Criminal Code, apparently, in a last-minute attempt to delay the reading of the Supreme Court’s verdict further.
After the Supreme Court’s dismissal of Tarit’s petition, the Criminal Court finally read the Supreme Court decision, which upheld the Appeals Court’s sentencing of Tarit on charges of malfeasance in judicial office.
The Supreme Court ruled that Tarit was fully aware, from the beginning, that the DSI had no authority to investigate or to take legal action against former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban for ordering the crackdown on red-shirt protesters during violent rallies in Bangkok in 2010.
The court said that the authority to investigate the cases rested with the National Anti-Corruption Commission, because Abhisit and Suthep were then political appointees and, after that, the case would proceed to the Attorney-General and the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Office.
The court also ruled that Tarit’s unauthorised criminal litigation against Abhisit and Suthep was an act of persecution, to appease the government of then prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, which was, at the time of the protests, in opposition to the two defendants.
As a result of Tarit’s action, his tenure as the DSI chief was extended for another year, said the Supreme Court.
The three other DSI officials, who were also sentenced to two years in prison by the Appeals Court, were, however, acquitted by the Supreme Court on the grounds of insufficient evidence to prove that they benefitted from their action in filing criminal charges against Abhisit and Suthep.
The Supreme Court said that the three DSI officers merely performed their duty under the guidance of Tarit, then the DSI chief.
