Thamarak and former Thai Rak Thai deputy secretary-general Pongsak Ruktapongpisal have been accused of hiring candidates from the Pattana Chart Thai Party to run in the April 2 election last year.

Thamarak told the Tribunal yesterday he had never met, nor given money to, Pattana Chart Thai representatives at the Defence Ministry, as claimed by opponents.

He said that at the time he was accused of meeting Pattana Chart Thai representatives, he was with Nong Khai's assistant provincial governor, Samarn Wongwarayut, to discuss presiding over an annual event in that province.  After, he met with then commander of the First Infantry Division of the Royal Guards, Maj-General Pruen Suwannathat, to discuss security measures at a Thai Rak Thai rally.

Thamarak said he had never known Pattana Chart Thai coordinator Chawakarn Tosawat, nor Pongsri Siwamoke and Toi Chulapat who accompanied him.

He said that Tawee Suwannapat, who the Democrats described as a close aide to the former minister, was an independent reporter who gave information about violence in the deep South. He claimed Tawee wasn't close to him and that Tawee always left information with his aide Colonel Cherdpong Boonyakiat, who was in charge of the information on violence in the restive South.

Tawee never handed information to him directly, Thamarak said.

He said the closed-circuit cameras at the ministry were in a "test-run period" at the time. He approved the installation himself and would not have had done so to catch pictures of him doing anything wrong.

Kornchanok Raksaseri

The Nation