State attorney, DSI merger plan splits opinion

State attorney, DSI merger plan splits opinion

Analysis: Doubts raised whether NRC proposal will end political meddling

A proposal by the National Reform Council (NRC) to merge the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) with the Office of the Attorney-General (OAG) has raised doubts over whether the proposed merger will really address the problem of political interference in the DSI.

The main reason cited by the NRC in support of its proposal is that the merger will lead to an improvement in the entire system of criminal investigations by improving investigators' specialities and boosting cooperation between DSI investigators and public prosecutors.

Another important reason the NRC gave to back its proposal is that there are a number of officials in the DSI who are controlled by politicians, thus making the DSI prone to political interference.

Under the merger proposal, the DSI will be downgraded to a special investigation office under the OAG.

The merger would see a special investigation commission set up with a similar structure to that of the Public Prosecutor Commission. The new commission is mainly responsible for ensuring the independence of investigators required to work with public prosecutors on special cases. 

It is proposed that special cases are to include those occurring overseas; involving a transnational criminal suspect; regarded as being highly complicated; suspected to involve a very influential figure; or be regarded by the director-general of the OAG's Department of the Attorney-General Affairs and the director-general of the special investigation office as special cases.

When they become part of the OAG, the special case investigators will be subject to the same high standards and ethical checks as public prosecutors.

DSI director-general Suwana Suwanjuta said the merger was floated by a number of panels studying ways to reform the judicial procedure.

The DSI has already considered this idea and will next weigh up its advantages and disadvantages, while waiting for the NRC to make its decision, she said.

Deputy permanent secretary for justice Chanchao Chaiyanukij simply said he agreed with any proposal to improve the entire criminal investigation systems and encourage cooperation among the agencies concerned.

But he did not think it was necessary to merge organisations for these purposes.

As for those civil servants in the DSI, most, if not all, of them openly expressed opposition to the proposed merger.

They had planned symbolic action to protest against the merger by wearing white shirts, but the movement was later called off after DSI executives asked them not to go ahead with it.

Col Piyawat Kingket, a former senior DSI official who said he unwillingly retired early after suffering alleged political interference in his work, posted his opinions regarding the proposed merger on his Facebook page on April 9.

He said he once led a probe into a forest-land encroachment case in Phangna province that involved a number of important politicians. He worked with several public prosecutors who all agreed with his decision to indict several suspects.

However, the director-general of the Department of the Attorney-General Affairs at that time decided not to indict the suspects, Col Piyawat said.

He then appealed against the case with the Attorney-General who eventually approved the suspects' indictment.

“I will never forget how the suspects used political interference to obstruct the indictment process,” he said.

Col Piyawat admitted he was not confident the proposed merger was the right solution to political interference in the department.

Those behind the interference are “criminals with plenty of money” and their money can be used to buy anything, including those involved in judicial procedures, he said.

In his opinion, the ideal solution would be an effective system to ensure the right people held political positions, while the Armed Forces Security Centre would approve selection of DSI chiefs.

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