Police named in report on trade in pirated goods

Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Pollabutr submitted the report to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who forwarded the list to his deputy Suthep Thaugsuban to follow up.

Alongkorn told reporters before yesterday's Cabinet meeting that as chairman of a committee on intellectual property protection policies, he had to report the 41 police - who have both high and low ranks - to Abhisit to get responsible agencies to act on them.

Alongkorn affirmed that the government's policy was to allow good cops "space" to work while wayward police or state officials involved in trading pirated goods would be punished by disciplinary bodies and via the criminal code.

He said police officers guilty of being involved in such crimes would be transferred or not promoted because supervisors would be given the list of "black sheep officials".

Asked if he revealed the wayward police for his own benefit, Alongkorn said people should look at the results because, since he had got tough on pirate CDs and goods, these products had nearly disappeared.

Asked why the Commerce Ministry acted on this issue instead of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), Alongkorn said his office was directly responsible for intellectual property rights and wanted to alert relevant agencies to act on the problem, while the DSI looked into cases where the goods were worth more than Bt500,000.

After the Cabinet meeting, Abhisit said he received the list from Alongkorn and gave it to Suthep to check complaints about these officials named.

He confirmed that the government was serious about the issue and said the panel would not have been set up and talked about this problem if it did not exist.

He declined to say why the problem could not be tackled properly in the past.

Assistant to national police chief Pol Lt Gen Boonreung Polpanich, who headed a police team to crack down on pirated goods, declined to comment, saying he had not seen the list yet.

He said police inquiries had so far not found any officers involved in such deals. He said he had instructed all regions to get tough on pirated goods and warned officials not get involved in this illegal business.

He said it would be best to look into individual cases first to see if the accused officials were were involved in such deals.