Adm Pachun Tamprateep, a National Reform Steering Assembly member, reported to the Technology Crime Suppression Division on Thursday acknowledged charges related to a chat message that alleged there was position-buying in the police force.
He responded to the police summons with attorney Nitithorn Lamlua at TCSD headquarters where about 50 officers from Thung Song Hong police station were deployed to ensure law and order.
The summons was issued after the Royal Thai Police Office filed a complaint charging him with defamation for allegedly posting a message on the Line messaging service accusing an army general of being involved in position-buying in the police force.
Adm Pachun said he would give information to the police investigators and would fight the case to its fullest extent.
The admiral is a former aide to Privy Council chairman Prem Tinsulanonda and former head of the Office of the Statesman's Foundation. Gen Prem offered him moral support in his case, Adm Pachun said.
Mr Nitithorn, the lawyer, said he had yet to get details of the accusation against Adm Pachun and that there was no proof the message posted to a Line group chatroom had been written by his client.
At the government offices complex on Chaeng Wattana Road where the TCSD is located, a number of supporters showed up with flowers to give Adm Pachun. They included Uthai Yodmanee, coordinator of the Network for Students and People for Reform of Thailand, Kittichai Saisa-ard, a former chief of volunteer guards of the People's Alliance for Democracy, and Sirichai Maingam, a former PAD core member.
The case against Adm Pachun become heated after Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon, who oversees the police commission, said there was no position-buying in the police force and that the RTPO was right to take legal action against the admiral.