Banned politicians aim to oust eight judges over assets ruling

Sanan points to strong discrepancies

Wut Nontharit

Nine politicians serving a five-year political ban for concealing their assets will try to oust the eight Constitutional Court judges who ruled in favour of the prime minister.

Maj-Gen Sanan Kachornprasart, the former Democrat secretary-general, said they were gathering evidence to back a petition to be submitted to Senate Speaker Manoonkrit Roopkachorn. A campaign would be launched to gather 50,000 signatures, he said, and MPs would be asked to back a motion to the Senate to remove all eight judges from office.

Maj-Gen Sanan said the ruling of the eight judges to clear Thaksin Shinawatra showed strong discrepancies in the legal basis they used in similar cases.

"The verdicts issued by the judges showed the treatment for the nine previous cases was far from fair and transparent. It also showed a lack of sound legal bases," Maj-Gen Sanan said.

He was barred from political office for five years when the court last year upheld a National Counter Corruption Commission ruling that he did not borrow 45 million baht from an automobile dealer as declared in his financial statements.

The eight others serving the five-year ban were Anand Sawastananond, Chatchai Sumetchotemetha, Mahusen Masuyi, Kosol Srisang, Sukhum Cherdcheun, Jirayu Charasathian, Sumet Upolthian and Prayut Mahakijsiri.

Maj-Gen Sanan said previous verdicts should be reviewed because the manner in which Mr Thaksin escaped punishment was "obscure".

He said only one precedent should be set for all assets concealment cases.

Mr Prayut also battled a wealth concealment charge but lost.

"The court said one thing about one person but another thing about another person. That's not right," Maj-Gen Sanan said.

He said his legal team would consider the possibility of checking the court's transparency through the Senate.

Maj-Gen Manoonkrit said he would look into the transparency of the court judges if the previously-banned politicians asked him to do so.

He said the Senate could proceed with the petition if it fell within Article 189 of the charter, which empowers senators to investigate independent organisations thought to be guilty of malfeasance.