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  1. #1
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    Thai court rules minister can keep job despite alleged heroin trafficking link

    Thai court rules minister can keep job despite alleged heroin trafficking link






    BangkokThailand's Constitutional Court on Wednesday ruled that a prominent politician should keep his cabinet post, thwarting opposition moves to disqualify him over news reports he was jailed in Australia for drug trafficking in the 1990s.

    The ruling said Thammanat Prompao, a deputy agriculture minister and power broker in Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha's ruling coalition, did not violate the constitution because he had not been convicted by a Thai court.

    "Although Thammanat received judgment, it was from a court in New South Wales, Australia ... but not a judgment from a Thai court and so is not prohibited from holding office based on constitution," it said in its decision.

    Thammanat has dismissed reports by two newspapers in Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age, that he had been jailed there for four years on a drugs charge. The newspapers have stood by their stories.

    Thai court rules minister can keep job despite alleged heroin trafficking link - CNN


    In its decision on the complaint by 51 opposition politicians, the Thai court said it had requested from parliament and the foreign ministry evidence of the conviction, including Australian court rulings made in 1994 and 1995, which were not forthcoming.

    Thammanat has said he had been caught with flour and not heroin. He has, however, admitted to having been convicted of an unspecified minor offense in Australia.

    Thammanat was involved in forming the coalition led by Prayuth following an election in 2019 that saw him stay on as premier, five years after he led a military coup against an elected government.

    Opposition parties have said the rules of that election were written to ensure victory for the party of Prayuth, which he rejects.

    Prayuth has since consolidated power, helped by the Constitutional Court's disqualification of the opposition Future Forward Party, a decision that triggered months of youth-led protests demanding his resignation and reform of the Thai monarchy.

  2. #2
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    Buckaroo Banzai's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by taxexile View Post
    hammanat has said he had been caught with flour and not heroin.
    In an unrelated story several of his diner party guests were hospitalize with heroin overdose symptoms , after consuming the cake his wife had baked that night.
    Authorities are puzzled.

  3. #3
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    Thai court rules minister can keep job despite alleged heroin trafficking link-67d53c5bfeba842b6116daf425c9a7d39402b476-jpg

    Should have been sent back and convicted in Thailand with the death penalty....

  4. #4
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    Another vivid insight into just why this country is beyond redemption and incapable of progressing out of its medieval morass of tribal inequality weighted against true democracy.

  5. #5

  6. #6
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    Flour ay! What was the muppet going to do, bake a cake in a hotel room without a kitchen???

  7. #7
    last farang standing
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    Aparently his mate with a very expensive watch said he had borrowed the flour from a friend who'd died.

  8. #8
    Thailand Expat tomcat's Avatar
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    ...^555...

  9. #9
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    The amusing feature of this farce is of course the primary concern among the more conventional members of the Thai establishment that it may reflect badly upon Thailand's image and reputation abroad. The fact that a convicted drugs trafficker and " a person of influence " has been appointed to hold office in a government that needs his support in order to remain in power is of course neither here nor there, bestowing patronage and sharing the spoils with people who in other societies would be regarded as beyond the pale in order to gain an advantage is the norm

    But that's the thing about this ghastly society, it's the appearance that counts and not the actual substance.

    I understand that despite his unorthodox earlier life this "politician" found the time to till the loam of academe and harvested a Phd. What a quite brilliant man, eh.

    The country is a joke, and a bad one at that.

  10. #10
    Thailand Expat tomcat's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Seekingasylum View Post
    the more conventional members of the Thai establishment
    ...as if:...
    Quote Originally Posted by Seekingasylum View Post
    But that's the thing about this ghastly society, it's the appearance that counts and not the actual substance.
    ...where on this planet is that not the case?...

  11. #11
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    You fucking idiot, where in the civilised west is it the norm that governments comprise convicted gangsters and drugs smugglers with proven bogus educational qualifications?

    You moron.

  12. #12
    Thailand Expat Saint Willy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Seekingasylum View Post
    You fucking idiot, where in the civilised west is it the norm that governments comprise convicted gangsters and drugs smugglers with proven bogus educational qualifications?

    You moron.

    And where else in the world would a Brexiter be stuck in a place like Pattaya trying to get their ducks in a row for over a decade, a bag of raw sausages - probably on special due to being out of date - in hand screaming beligerently at the world for all the injustices?
    Warning: Be cautious if you are a fragile pink

  13. #13
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    Have you had a cerebral event of some sort? You really are quite incoherent.

  14. #14
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    Just driven through Phayao. The roads are very nice!

  15. #15
    Thailand Expat Saint Willy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Seekingasylum View Post
    Have you had a cerebral event of some sort? You really are quite incoherent.

    It makes perfectly good sense, Sausages. How are your ducks?

  16. #16
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    Why haven't we heard anything about how Prayuth & his junta were going to purge the country of corruption since the last coup d'etat?

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Why haven't we heard anything about how Prayuth & his junta were going to purge the country of corruption since the last coup d'etat?
    it's only corruption when it's the others doing it,

    what a frigging joke they are,

  18. #18
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    ^^ Indeed, that question was aired when this guy got his position. And we say Thai people are concerned with "face", yet the "good people" don't mind being associated with a former drug convict while having an anti-corruption stance...(TBH they don't talk so much about it these days).

    The Junta's issue is that they need him at a ministerial position to retain majority in the house of MP

  19. #19
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    WTF is 'alleged' about it exactly?

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