National—
At 3:00 PM, on January 26th, 2024, the Thai Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) inspected three locations in Pathum Thani on three accused activists who were allegedly threatening bribes from a government official in exchange for not harassing them for investigation.
According to a report by PACC, Mr. Natthakit Khongthip, the Director General of the Rice Department, filed a complaint report regarding Mr. Srisuwan Janya, a Thai famous serial petitioner, Mr. Yoswarit Chuklom, a leader of Ruam Thai Sang Chart Party, and Ms. Pimnattha Jiraputthiphak, a former candidate for Ruam Thai Sang Chart Party, for allegedly extorting money of 3 million baht in exchange to not exposing alleged corruption in a rice project.
However, Natthakit told PACC that he allegedly negotiated with the accused activists down to 1.5 million baht. Natthakit believed that he performed his duties transparently but he was afraid that the accused activists would keep harassing and discrediting him. As a result, Natthakit allegedly first paid 140,000 baht and secretly filmed the bribery deal, according to PACC.
Upon a PACC investigation, it was found that the accused activists indeed allegedly asked for bribes to stop harassing Natthakit. The PACC requested arrest warrants from the Thai Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct in Srisuwan, Yoswarit, and Pimnattha.
The PACC conducted a plan with Natthakit to give a bribe of another 500,000 baht to the accused activists. However, when the PACC officials showed up, Srisuwan allegedly threw the money away in an attempt to get rid of the evidence.
PACC officials were able to retrieve the evidence and captured Srisuwan before searching the house to gather further evidence. Furthermore, Srisuwan’s wife was invited for interrogation to determine whether she was involved in the case or not.
However, Yoswarit and Pimnattha were under negotiation to surrender at Nang Loeng police station. The relevant agencies would hold a press conference regarding the details of the case soon once the case reached its conclusion.
As of today, January 27th, 2024, Srisuwan has claimed he is innocent and threw the money away to make it clear he wasn’t involved and didn’t want the money as he was being allegedly set up and was not involved in any bribery situation. He says he will take the case to court to prove his innocence.
