Even if it goes ahead with case against Abhisit and Korn for alleged misuse of messaging services, the move won't have immediate impact on their positions
The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) will decide today whether it will proceed with the case against Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij over their alleged misuse of mobile-phone short message services (SMS) in December 2008, officials said.
However, even if the NACC decides to pursue the case, it will have no immediate impact on Abhisit's and Korn's positions.
It was widely expected earlier that the commission would announce its final decision on the case, which could have resulted in the pair's suspension if the ruling was that they were guilty.
But the commission will not announce anything more than whether it considers there are sufficient grounds to pursue the case, said commission secretary Apinan Isarasena na Ayuthaya.
"If the commission has all the information and sees no point in charging the prime minister and the minister, their cases will be dropped," he said.
"But if there are some grounds, we would ask them to provide evidence and give their accounts to defend themselves."
Only after they had done so would the NACC rule on whether there were sufficient grounds to punish them, he said.
The panel investigating the case has recommended that the NACC drop the case for lack of solid evidence, according to a source close to the panel.
Abhisit and Korn were accused by the opposition Pheu Thai Party and Senator Ruangkrai Leekit-wattana of receiving assets worth more than Bt3,000 when they asked three mobile-phone operators to send Abhisit's SMS to 17 million cellphones across the country.
Korn, on behalf of Abhisit, asked the operators to send the message one day after Abhisit took office in December 2008, saying "this is your new prime minister, may I ask you to help bring our country out of crisis. If you are interested in receiving further messages from me, please [reply] to 9191 (Bt3 per message)."
Ruangkrai said the anti-graft body took more than a year and a half to consider the case, perhaps a bit longer than other cases.
As a complainant, Ruangkrai said the commission was supposed to ask him to give his account to the investigative panel but that had not happened.
If the commission does not drop the case today, it will drag on even longer, he said.
Article 103 of the anti-graft law prohibits government officials from accepting any assets worth more than Bt3,000. If found guilty, they can be jailed for a maximum of three years or fined a maximum of Bt60,000 or both.
They could be also impeached from their positions in accordance with the Constitution.
Ruangkrai said it was a technicality of the law that any officials who accepted assets worth more than Bt3,000, with or without wrongful intent, must be punished. But such officials might not be impeached if they can prove the act was unintentional, he said.
"It is very obvious that the prime minister and finance minister knew that sending a message has its cost, and a message to 17 million subscribers is absolutely more than Bt3,000," Ruangkrai said.
Previously, Korn admitted during a censure debate in Parliament that he did not pay for the message transfer but asked for cooperation from the three operators to do it free of charge, Ruangkrai said.
However, a close aide to Korn said the SMS case depended on how it was defined and how it was intended. "If it was meant to benefit the prime minister, then he is guilty, but if it was meant to benefit the country, then the Bt3,000 limit under the law doesn't apply," he said.