A minister's assistant at the centre of the latest Thai Rak Thai crisis dismissed as lies the allegations that cash was handed out to minor political parties to encourage them to contest the April elections.

"There was no payment to hire any minor party whatsoever," Thawee Suwannapat, assistant to Defence Minister Thamarak Isarangura, said after being questioned by Election Commission investigators yesterday.

Thawee said he was one of the three men who appeared in stills taken from the Defence Ministry's security camera footage that were produced by Democrat secretary-general Suthep Thaugsuban.

Suthep accused Thamarak of paying Chavakarn Tosawat, a Pattana Chart Thai Party executive, when they met at the ministry on March 3.

Yesterday Thawee said he accompanied Chavakarn to the ministry that day for a meeting with Thamarak. However, the defence minister was too busy and Chavakarn left after waiting for about 30 minutes, Thawee said.

He told reporters that Chavakarn asked him to arrange his meeting with Thamarak in order to tell him "important news about a political party", but gave no further details.

Thawee said he and two other Thamarak aides met Chavakarn the next day at a Bangkok hotel to discuss how the Pattana executive could hire him to produce campaign material for the minor party. However, Thawee later abandoned the deal because the minor party failed to hand over any money.

Thawee and the two Thamarak aides - Pongsri Siwamok and Thirachai Julapat - appeared in some of the photos produced by Suthep during a Criminal Court hearing on Monday in a case against the EC. An EC team, headed by election commissioner Prinya Nakchudtree, questioned the three men at the agency's headquarters yesterday.

Earlier, an EC subcommittee investigating the allegations against the Thai Rak Thai Party uncovered suspicious bank transfers and evidence of interference in EC records on the electoral candidates of minor parties.

After they submitted their findings, the panel rejected an order from EC chairman Vasana Puemlarp to conduct further investigations, concluding they were satisfied the allegations made against the ruling party were true.

In a related development, Democrat spokesman Thepthai Senpong said yesterday that Thamarak's excuses had failed to convince anyone that the pictures recorded by security cameras linking him to the funding of minor parties were fake.

"If Thamarak was really innocent, he would have sued Suthep for defamation, but he couldn't as he is confronted by damning evidence," Thepthai said.

Thepthai was referring to Thamarak's insistence on Wednesday that the pictures had been doctored.

He said Thamarak had failed to convince Thai Rak Thai deputy leader Bhokin Bhalakula and the rest of his party, which had already distanced itself from the matter by saying Thamarak was solely responsible.

The Democrat also urged the Defence Ministry to speed up its investigation into the closed-circuit footage leak so the pictures could be compared against the originals kept in the ministry.

Thamarak's party colleague Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan dismissed speculation a Thai Rak Thai insider had leaked the pictures to Suthep to unseat the minister.

"I don't believe Thai Rak Thai members are stabbing each other in the back," she said.

Thai Rak Thai deputy spokesman Chatuporn Promphan called on Suthep to release the complete footage, saying, "I am confident the footage will prove no money changed hands."

Defence permanent secretary General Sirichai Tunyasiri said he expected an internal investigation would by Monday identify who leaked the security-camera footage.

Atthayuth Butrsriphum,

Yossawadee Hongthong

The Nation