Former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom arrived at the Supreme Court on Friday morning to hear the judgement in the government-to-government (G-to-G) rice sale case against him, and said he would respect the court's decision which ever way it went.
Mr Boonsong's co-defendant, former deputy Poom Sarapol, also arrived to hear the judgement.
The former commerce minister is alleged to have violated the 1999 Act on price offering with state agencies, known as the anti-price collusion law, by collaborating with others in assisting a company that did not represent the Chinese government to secure a government-to-government rice buying contract with the Yingluck Shinawatra government.
He said he would respect the court’s ruling no matter how it turned out, he could secure his acquittal or face punishment.
However, if found guilty he would appeal and submit a bail request to the court. He had fought whole-heartedly in this case, he said.
“I am well-prepared. As for assets frozen by the Legal Execution Department, there is also the same order from the court. Therefore, there should be no problem. After submitting the bail request, I will appeal within 30 days, according to the law,” Mr Boonsong said.
Asked whether the ruling would affect his role in politics, Mr Boonsong said it could be greatly affected, but he had not thought much about that yet.
In response to questions, Mr Boonsong said had no foreknowledge of the ruling. It was up to the judges.
However, he was confident the court had thoroughly considered allthe evidence.
The ruling was being read out.