"The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) will decide today whether it will proceed with the case against Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij over their alleged misuse of mobile-phone short message services (SMS) in December 2008, officials said. . .
It was widely expected earlier that the commission would announce its final decision on the case, which could have resulted in the pair's suspension if the ruling was that they were guilty.But the commission will not announce anything more than whether it considers there are sufficient grounds to pursue the case, said commission secretary Apinan Isarasena na Ayuthaya. . .
Abhisit and Korn were accused by the opposition Pheu Thai Party and Senator Ruangkrai Leekit-wattana of receiving assets worth more than Bt3,000 when they asked three mobile-phone operators to send Abhisit's SMS to 17 million cellphones across the country.
Korn, on behalf of Abhisit, asked the operators to send the message one day after Abhisit took office in December 2008, saying "this is your new prime minister, may I ask you to help bring our country out of crisis. If you are interested in receiving further messages from me, please [reply] to 9191 (Bt3 per message)."
Ruangkrai said the anti-graft body took more than a year and a half to consider the case, perhaps a bit longer than other cases. As a complainant, Ruangkrai said the commission was supposed to ask him to give his account to the investigative panel but that had not happened.
If the commission does not drop the case today, it will drag on even longer, he said.
Article 103 of the anti-graft law prohibits government officials from accepting any assets worth more than Bt3,000. If found guilty, they can be jailed for a maximum of three years or fined a maximum of Bt60,000 or both. They could be also impeached from their positions in accordance with the Constitution."
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/2010/...y-30133897.html
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Will NACC decide SMS case against Abhisit?
Started by Haloi, Jul 16 2010 09:48 AM
3 replies to this topic
#2
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Posted 16 July 2010 - 10:26 AM
It's funny how the Democrats are trying to characterize this case as much ado about nothing. They seem to forget that the Thai courts threw PM Samak out of his pffice as prime minister for cooking on TV. In this case, the hundreds of thousands of bahts involved when Abhisit got the phone companies to give him free use of their mobile network to SMS all Thais with a political message makes the Samak case look like a trifle. Talk about double standards !
#3
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Posted 16 July 2010 - 04:31 PM
"The NACC has decided to launch additional probe on SMS case involving Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij, NACC member Klanarong Chantik said on Friday.
Based on the prilimanry report, Abhisit and Korn formulated a policy to communicate with the people before the royal appointment of the prime minister on December 17, 2008, Klanarong said. On December 16, 2008, Korn called a meeting of three mobile phone operators, AIS, Dtac and True Move, asking for their cooperation to provide short messaging services as a public service. The SMS were sent out after the government came to power and all messages were screened and approved by Abhisit and Korn. . .
Following its debate on Thursday, the NACC found insufficient factual information to rule on the cause of guilt.
The complaint against Abhisit and Korn included the legal and tax issues for granting income tax exception from revenues generated by the SMS.
Unlike other short messages sent out as the public service which had no replies, the people responded by replying to SMS sent out by Abhisit and Korn, Each reply generated a Bt 3 revnue for the operators.
Korn, after assuming office, ruled to exempt income tax on the revenue from SMS he deemed as public service. The NACC ruled to collect additional evidence on whether Korn had abused his office on the tax exemption.After completing the additional probe on the tax issue, the NACC will then proceed to rule whether launch the impeachment proceedings against Abhisit and Korn."
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/2010/...e-30133922.html
Based on the prilimanry report, Abhisit and Korn formulated a policy to communicate with the people before the royal appointment of the prime minister on December 17, 2008, Klanarong said. On December 16, 2008, Korn called a meeting of three mobile phone operators, AIS, Dtac and True Move, asking for their cooperation to provide short messaging services as a public service. The SMS were sent out after the government came to power and all messages were screened and approved by Abhisit and Korn. . .
Following its debate on Thursday, the NACC found insufficient factual information to rule on the cause of guilt.
The complaint against Abhisit and Korn included the legal and tax issues for granting income tax exception from revenues generated by the SMS.
Unlike other short messages sent out as the public service which had no replies, the people responded by replying to SMS sent out by Abhisit and Korn, Each reply generated a Bt 3 revnue for the operators.
Korn, after assuming office, ruled to exempt income tax on the revenue from SMS he deemed as public service. The NACC ruled to collect additional evidence on whether Korn had abused his office on the tax exemption.After completing the additional probe on the tax issue, the NACC will then proceed to rule whether launch the impeachment proceedings against Abhisit and Korn."
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/2010/...e-30133922.html
#4
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Posted 16 July 2010 - 08:11 PM
"The decision by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) to indefinitely postpone its ruling on the SMS case against Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij could have a hidden political agenda, Puea Thai Party spokesman Prompong Nopparit said on Friday afternoon.
“The ruling in this case should have been given many months ago, but the agency has delayed it for years."Now it claims it needs more time for further investigation. "The anti-graft agency’s standards are being watched by the political science and law branches,” Mr Prompong said.
If the NACC rules that Mr Abhisit and Mr Korn violated the law, they would have to immediately stand down, the Puea Thai spokesman said. The NACC's postponement decision sounded just like buying time to help the government.
Mr Prompong pointed to the difference in the handling of the SMS case and the cases involving the cooking show programme on TV hosted by the late former prime minister Samak Sundaravej and the Preah Vihear agreement endorsement case of former prime minister Somchai Wongsawat. The decisions in these two cases were made rapidly, and went against the two former prime ministers, he said."
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/politics/1...ng-indefinitely
“The ruling in this case should have been given many months ago, but the agency has delayed it for years."Now it claims it needs more time for further investigation. "The anti-graft agency’s standards are being watched by the political science and law branches,” Mr Prompong said.
If the NACC rules that Mr Abhisit and Mr Korn violated the law, they would have to immediately stand down, the Puea Thai spokesman said. The NACC's postponement decision sounded just like buying time to help the government.
Mr Prompong pointed to the difference in the handling of the SMS case and the cases involving the cooking show programme on TV hosted by the late former prime minister Samak Sundaravej and the Preah Vihear agreement endorsement case of former prime minister Somchai Wongsawat. The decisions in these two cases were made rapidly, and went against the two former prime ministers, he said."
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/politics/1...ng-indefinitely
