A former lawmaker once jailed for bulldozing tenants off land he owned may not get to build a lucrative development if the law holds him to his promise to give it to the people of Bangkok.
It turns out that Chuwit Kamolvisit, the self-described “super pimp” with ties to the underworld who now promotes himself as a graft-busting whistleblower, may not legally own the land between BTS Nana and Soi Sukhumvit 10 where initial work has begun on Tenth Avenue, a THB10 billion (US$292 million), 51-story mixed-use development.
An activist lawyer has said Chuwit is legally bound to his 2005 promise to give the land to City Hall, a vow he made to win a more lenient sentence from the courts for illegally demolishing all of his tenants’ businesses in 2003 in the dead of night.
Chuwit fought the related charges for over a decade until finally confessing guilt in 2016, at…
