A House panel meeting on the Viktor Bout extradition saga turned ugly yesterday when two MPs at the centre of the matter started exchanging angry words and making personal attacks rather than focusing on the matter at hand.
In the session called by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Democrat MP Sirichoke Sopha reiterated his theory that Bout was possibly involved with the planeload of weapons that was intercepted in Thailand in March.
He also implied that there was a connection between Bout and former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and suggested that the cache of weapons was possibly meant for red-shirt protesters.
Pheu Thai MP Jatuporn Promphan accused Sirichoke of giving Thaksin a bad name and using "idiotic" logic because certain items in the cache were several metres long.
"How can weapons of that size be used in a protest? What is Sirichoke's logic in coming up with such a story?" he asked.
Sirichoke hit back by saying Jatuporn was trying to avoid mentioning the many rocket-propelled grenades that went missing from the plane, but were later found to have been used by red-shirt protesters. "You are full of lies and distorting facts, while only bringing up details that are useful to yourself," he said.
Jatuporn hit back by saying Sirichoke's father was not a Thai, while Sirichoke accused Jatuporn of violating a female student studying in Ramkhamhaeng area. These out-of-subject arguments later prompted committee chairman Torphong Chaiyasarn to order a five-minute break.
In their closing statements, Jatuporn called on Sirichoke to dig deep into his own theory and take legal action against anyone involved in arms smuggling, while Sirichoke repeated his insistence that he had met Bout in prison to seek information about the seized cargo plane.
The House committee will next week come to a conclusion over its response to Sirichoke's meeting with Bout in prison.