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Court
bars TRT's Karun from race
EC to press charges for using fake papers
POST REPORTERS
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| Karun Hosakul arrives at the Supreme Court yesterday to testify about his alleged forgery of a vocational education certificate. — APICHART JINAKUL |
The court took one day to deliberate the case and hand down the verdict against Mr Karun yesterday.
The Election Commission (EC) formally petitioned the court seeking to disqualify Mr Karun on Wednesday after being told that the Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU) had decided to take back a degree awarded to him.
The court upheld the university's decision, which it insisted remained in effect and was fully binding on Mr Karun.
The court said the STOU was in a position to cancel the degree and the university did not apply its authority in an abusive manner. Mr Karun, however, said the university denied him a fair chance to answer the allegation that he forged a vocational education certificate which he used to apply for a place at the STOU. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in public administration in 2001.
The certificate suspected of having been forged was issued by the little-known Thurakij Bundit Technical School in Nakhon Si Thammarat. Mr Karun also told the hearing the EC did not give him enough time to prepare his defence before the court. He had only 10 hours to gather evidence.
The former Thai Rak Thai candidate for Bangkok's Don Muang constituency said the short notice deprived him of an opportunity to invite witnesses including the owner of Thurakij Bundit Technical School to testify.
The court, however, said witness testimony was not necessary as documentary evidence put up was enough to proceed with the hearing.
Mr Karun went on to complain that the EC did not reject him when he presented his master's degree from Ramkhamhaeng University to register for election candidacy.
Nor did he get any letter from the STOU summoning him to explain the alleged certificate fraud.
Somjit Thongsri, secretary of the Supreme Court panel supervising poll-related adjudication, ruled out an appeal, saying the verdict was final. The judges did not cross-examine under any political duress or pass the verdict in conformity to any public sentiment, Mr Somjit said.
Mr Karun also stood to lose his master's degree as well since he technically did not finish the undergraduate programme, he added.
The secretary said the EC would be told of the verdict to be published for the public to see at the Supreme Court and posted on the court's website.
He also said the votes cast for Mr Karun at the advance voting round on Jan 29-30 would become invalid.
Election commissioner Parinya Nakchatri said the EC would press criminal charges against Mr Karun for using fake documents to apply for candidacy.
The commission would tell Don Muang polling stations to cross out Mr Karun's candidacy number 9, said Mr Parinya.
After the verdict was read, Mr Karun said he accepted the outcome but would carry on with the campaign to encourage voters to cast ballots for him and for the Thai Rak Thai party.
Ballots cast for a disqualified candidate would be worthless. Mr Karun said he did not know if there was legal punishment against people persuading voters to cast dud ballots.
An EC source said doing that would breach article 44 of the election law, and the offender could face 1-10 years in jail and a fine of 20,000-200,000 baht. The offender, if found guilty, would also be banned from contesting elections at all levels. When this was pointed out to Mr Karun, he backed down from his threat to mislead voters.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said there was nothing the party could do at this point but to cut Mr Karun loose. The party only checked his bachelor's degree but did not check his vocational education background.
Chart Thai's Janista Liewchalermwong, Mr Karun's main rival who stands to gain from his absence in constituency 14, said after learning of the court ruling that she would continue campaigning as usual since there are many other candidates still in the race.
Yesterday morning, Khunying Jaemsai, wife of Chart Thai leader Banharn Silpa-archa, and their daughter Kanchana joined Ms Janista on the campaign trail.
Sources said other parties fielding candidates in the constituency had asked Thai Rak Thai to tell its supporters to vote for them instead now that Mr Karun is out of the race.
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