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Published on April 4, 2008

Almost all of the cases were filed by ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra and his family, who have been directly affected by the graft investigations carried out by the AEC.

Nine of the cases have been rejected by a lower court and plaintiffs have filed appeals for some of the rejected cases. The court's argument for rejection was that the AEC had performed its duties.

The number of cases is expected to increase if the coalition government, many of whose members remain loyal to Thaksin, succeeds in scrapping Article 309 of the Constitution. The clause recognises as lawful those acts by organisations set up after the September 2006 coup, which include the AEC.

The AEC was appointed by the coup-makers to investigate corruption allegations against Thaksin and his Cabinet.

Thanks partly to Article 309, the AEC and its members have been spared from punishment for their acts, which included ordering a freeze on bank accounts of Thaksin, his wife and their children.

One of the six civil cases was filed by Samak Sundaravej before he became prime minister. Samak sued AEC chairman Nam Yimyaem and Prasert Boonsri, who headed the panel's investigative committee on the fire-engine purchase scandal, seeking damages of Bt165 million.

The case was rejected by a lower court and Samak was ordered to cover lawyer fees of Bt50,000 for Nam and another Bt10,000 for Prasert.

Among the civil cases, the highest amount of damages was cited by Thaksin and his wife in their separate cases. They each sought Bt50 billion in compensation. Nam said he and other AEC members were unmoved by the legal action. He joked that there was no doubt he had no money to pay.

Other AEC members Khunying Jaruvan Maintaka, Amnuay Thantara and Sak Korsaengruang insisted they were not afraid of legal threats as they believed they were doing the right thing.

Sak, the AEC spokesman, said it remained unclear to him whether the AEC would face more lawsuits if Article 309 were scrapped.

AEC secretary Kaewsan Atibodhi said the agency was not concerned about the attempt to scrap the clause. "We will continue doing our duty as required by law," he said.

Budsarakham Sinlapalavan

The Nation