More than five years ago, teenager Orachorn "Praewa" Thephasadin na Ayudhya killed nine people, and badly injured four others, in a traffic accident on the motorway. Now an adult but still showing no remorse, Orachorn has squirmed through expensive, legal loopholes to avoid responsibility for her acts. The Probation Department has revealed she has not just avoided the lenient punishment she received. She is actually claiming to be a victim.
The facts of the case are clear. Orachorn, then 16 and still ineligible to drive, hit a passenger van on Dec 27, 2010, on the Bangkok Tollway. She was charged with driving without a licence, reckless driving causing death and injury, property damage and using a mobile phone while driving. After the crash, the public charged she was hiding behind family money and influence in a bid to escape accountability.
The court sentenced her to two years in jail, suspended for four years. There was some hope that performing a bare minimum of 48 hours a year of community service would provide Orachorn with humility and grace. In this case, hope failed. Orachorn, now 22, has been breaching those kind conditions as she failed to reach an agreement with the authorities on where she would carry out the social service and simply went ahead at the place she chose.
In her attempt to claim she is the victim in her case, Orachorn sent lawyers to tell the Probation Department's director-general, Narat Sawetanant, that she would fear for her safety if she was told to perform community service elsewhere. When the authorities complained to her family that she was failing to meet the probation conditions, it petitioned the Office of the Ombudsman, accusing those involved of threatening her.
Authorities now face the public on this case. It is an important case, because it will have one of the only two possible outcomes. On one side, the highly influential family backing Orachorn may continue to pile on lawyers and power. This could end in more leniency for the convicted. Or authorities could come to the realisation that leniency is exactly what caused nine deaths and four years of obdurate lack of shame and responsibility. As of now, Orachorn is a danger to society because there is no evidence she has taken her horrific actions seriously.
The Orachorn case should be considered alongside the reckless driving incident that killed two people in Ayutthaya last week. The driver who caused the crash is from a wealthy family. Police handling the case are under criticism for what appeared to be foot-dragging which many believe might have to do with the driver's social status.
These cases show spectacularly why the public backed Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's sudden call for a crackdown on influence, including 6,000 so-called influential families in Thailand. There will be no equality under the law until this cancer is cut from the national body.
There are thousands of Orachorns who are treated specially because of their families' influence. The only way to deal with the problem is from the very top, because those with influence will retaliate with lawyers and money as with the Orachorn case, or through other, less savoury means.
The charges against Orachorn were transparent. The court case proceeded properly. But this has become, to the lawbreaker, something of a game -- truth without consequences. Officers of the courts should repair this travesty.