AEC was too 'hot-headed'

The Office of Attorney-General yesterday hit back at the now defunct Assets Examination Committee (AEC), saying the agency was too hot-headed and acted on public sentiment in  withdrawing its corruption cases from the OAG and filing them directly with the court.

Deputy Attorney-General Waiyawut Lortrakul and OAG spokesman Thanapit Mulpruek organised a press conference to counter criticism made by the AEC at its final press conference on Monday.

Waiyawut said the AEC recommended 11 cases to the OAG for prosecution. Of these, the Ratchadaphisek land purchase case and Shinawatra Computer and Telecommunications tax-evasion case were sent to the court by the OAG.

The OAG found five investigation files incomplete. They were related to the two- and three-digit lottery, rubber sapling, Export-Import Bank loan and CTX bomb detector cases, and the freezing of Bt76 billion in assets of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

He denied that the OAG blocked or delayed these cases, saying it wanted the AEC and public prosecutors to join hands to plug holes in the files.

The AEC withdrew the two-and three-digit lottery, rubber sapling and Exim Bank loan cases from the OAG to file the cases in court on its own.

"It should not have done that. It should not bypass the OAG but should wait for our decision. It should not instigate public sentiment against us," he said.

If the two agencies had worked together, the OAG could have come up with an indictment for all 11 cases, except the Exim Bank and CTX cases, before the AEC's term ended, he said.

"The AEC saw us as law students and them as law lecturers. If we do not have our own judgement, then we're not public prosecutors but just mailmen," he said.

If state attorneys are not careful and allowed errors or flaws in a suit, the credibility of witnesses could be ruined and the court could drop the case, he said.

He dismissed the AEC's accusation that public attorneys duped the agency to make copies of the freezing of Bt76 billion in assets of Thaksin but refused to deliver an indictment decision.

The case was incomplete because in the suit, the AEC wanted to seize Bt76 billion but froze only Bt69 billion, he said. "What about the rest of the money? How were the public prosecutors going to write the suit?" he said.

The court uses the inquisitorial system. If a suit was weak and the judges did not inquire more information and acquitted suspects, then public prosecutors would be blamed for the failure, he added.