NACC not hopeful of resolution with prosecutors in Yingluck case
Sansern rules out conducting more probe in rice-pledging case against ex-PM
National Anti-Corruption Commission secretary-general Sansern Poljieak has said the Office of the Attorney-General and the anti-graft agency are unlikely to jointly resolve the case involving the rice-pledging scheme against ex-prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
Sansern yesterday insisted the NACC would not investigate more people in the case after he said the Office asked it to spend more time probing the alleged government-to-government rice sales.
He was responding to a reaction from the Office's litigation department director-general Surasak Trirattrakul, calling on the NACC to plug the holes in the case by interviewing more witnesses.
Surasak said the Office wanted to see more evidence because the NACC report showed discrepancies in witness testimonies, which made it unclear as to whether the government-to-government rice sales took place.
Sansern said that would not happen because that investigation element was not related to the charge the NACC had filed against Yingluck.
He said the NACC report did not include this issue in the Yingluck case but included it in another graft case, against former Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom and former Deputy Commerce Minister Poom Sarapol over the scrapped rice-pledging scheme.
He said the NACC had accused Yingluck of dereliction of duty for failing to stop corruption and massive losses in the scheme.
In October, the Finance Ministry reported that the estimated losses in the scheme were between Bt600-700 billion.
Sansern said the NACC would meet tomorrow to decide its next move.
He said it was not clear if the Office would indict Yingluck as recommended by the NACC but there was a high probability that both agencies would be unable to resolve the case together.
Whether she would be indicted or not would be announced when the agencies hold their last joint meeting, which was yet to be scheduled.
The state prosecution agency said it would not be able to complete the investigation this year.
According to due process, if both agencies disagree with the indictment decision in any case, they have to make that known officially.
If that happens in this case, the NACC would be able to directly file the case in the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Political Office Holders Court. It had previously stated it was prepared to do so.
The anti-graft agency and the public prosecutors failed for a third time in November to reach an agreement on whether a criminal case should be filed against Yingluck. That prompted speculation that the NACC might take the case to court on its own.
An NACC source said that if the Office continued to refuse to file a criminal case against Yingluck, it was likely the anti-graft agency would go down that route.
It has previously taken criminal cases against political-office holders to court without the state prosecutor's consent, including the one against Yingluck's older brother, former PM Thaksin Shinawatra.