The opposition Move Forward Party is working on a bill, to be submitted to the House of Representatives, seeking to amend the Criminal Code to prevent law enforcement officers from distorting the law in a way which could benefit or cause damage to the accused or defendants.
The proposed amendment seeks to heavily penalise law enforcement officers including police investigators, public prosecutors and judges if they are found to have abused their power and distorted laws.
Move Forward MPs Rangsiman Rome and Woraphop Viriyarote told the media today (Wednesday) that their proposed amendment to Section 200 of the Criminal Code was modeled after the German criminal law pertaining to officials in justice process to prevent them from interpreting the law in a way which may distort the spirit of the law with an objective to maintain check and balance of the justice process.
The two cited the last week’s ruling of the Constitutional Court which allows Deputy Agriculture Minister Thammanat Prompow to maintain his ministerial and parliamentary status, despite his conviction and imprisonment in an Australian prison on drug trafficking charges in the 1990’s, on the ground that the verdict was not imposed by a Thai court.
Mr Rangsiman said that the charter court’s ruling, which is in favor of Thammanat, may be deemed as a distortion of the interpretation of the law, adding that the use of the law by the Criminal Court in rejecting bail for remanded Ratsadon protest leaders might be seen as distortion of the law.
The proposed amendment, said Rangsiman, will offer a definition for “distortion of the law” and will outline penalties.
