Storm of trouble now brewing in court cases not involving Vatana

While progress continues in the Klong Dan court case against former interior minister Vatana Asavahame, in which a ruling will now be made on August 18, a storm of trouble is brewing in two related court cases.

While senior officials say the cases are proceeding properly, villagers and activists cast doubt on the authority of the Pollution Control Department (PCD) and Natural Resources and Environment Minister Anongwan Thepsuthin over the cases.

Activist Phenchom Saetang, who is closely monitoring the project, questioned the PCD's recent replacement of the legal team in the Klong Dan civil court case, complaining it might significantly affect proceedings.

"We sense that the PCD does not want to win the case. There is no reason to replace an efficient legal team with another one. The previous team had proven their capability in pushing the Klong Dan case into the civil court," Phenchom, organiser of the Campaign for Alternative Industry Network, said.

After construction of the wastewater-treatment project was ordered to be halted in 2003, the PCD filed a civil lawsuit against the joint-venture construction company NVPSKG after a land-purchase fraud case, demanding Bt17 billion in compensation. The case is currently in the appeal court.

That resulted in NVPSKG filing for arbitration, demanding Bt1.6-billion compensation from the PCD.

"If the PCD loses the arbitration case, it will cost the state at least Bt1.6 billion and it might affect significantly the rest of the civil and criminal cases. That means in total we will lose more than Bt23 billion for this corrupt mega-project," she said.

PCD director-general Supat Wangwongwattana told The Nation the legal team had been replaced, but said it was a normal process.

"I recently set up the new legal team. The former director-general had proposed to the court to replace the lawyers. It was my duty to set up a new team for the case's continuity," Supat said.

"The cases are going okay, along the due process. The ruling in Vatana's case will certainly affect the rest of the court cases in some way, for better or worse," he added.

The former director-general, Sirithan Pairojborriboon, is currently an executive director of the Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organisation. He had proposed replacing the lawyers early this year.

Villagers opposed to the Klong Dan project had accused Sirithan of pushing for the project that led to today's corruption on land-purchase cases. He chaired the committee that approved the land purchase.

"We will soon file a police complaint against him for his faulty report about the land case," Chalao Thimthong, a village leader, said.

Chalao claimed Sirithan had reported that the land was legal but later some pieces of land totalling 1,383 rai were found to be public property and illegally taken over by investors and politicians.

Chalao also questioned the recent announcement by Anongwan about continuing the construction of the Klong Dan wastewater-treatment plant. He raised the question of conflict of interest and the possibility of damaging the court cases.

"The minister's husband, Somsak Thepsuthin, a former industry minister, used to have 50,000 shares in Palmbeach Company, one of the land-gathering companies for the Klong Dan project which was involved in the [alleged] corruption scheme," he said.

"The PCD had previously consulted the attorney-general about whether continuing the project's construction would affect the court case. The attorney-general in 2005 replied 'yes'. How could the minister announce this policy?" the villager leader added.