The Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Persons Holding Political Positions has found Anurak Tangpanitanon, Pheu Thai MP for Mukdahan, guilty of violating the parliamentary ethical code for demanding a 5-million-baht bribe in exchange for passing a proposed budget allocation deal.
The misconduct is also deemed as an abuse of MP authority to obtain personal gains, which is prohibited under Section 87 of the 2018 organic law on corruption suppression and prevention, said the court’s ruling.
The MP was retrospectively stripped of his position on Dec 15, 2021 when he was suspended from his duties over corruption allegations as the court agreed to hear the case. He was banned from running for an election and from holding political positions for life and from voting for 10 years.
The case was filed with the court after the National Anti-Corruption Commission found grounds to believe the MP had demanded the bribe as accused.
According to Friday’s ruling, Anurak demanded a bribe from Sakda Wichiansilp, director-general of the Department of Groundwater Resources, in exchange for not trimming the department’s budget in a 2021 budget allocation.
The misconduct took place as the House committee vetting the 2021 budget bill was scrutinising a proposed budget allocation for the department. Anurak at the time was serving as a member of a House sub-committee reviewing the budget set aside for the department worth 1.2 billion baht.
The panel sought to integrate the national budget, which required trimming some of the allocations.
The scandal came to light when Mr Sakda spilled the beans during a meeting with the sub-committee reviewing the budget allocation for his department, saying a member of the sub-committee had called him and demanded 5 million baht in bribes in exchange for passing this proposed budget allocation.
The incident prompted the NACC to look into the allegation and found evidence retrieved from the call history of Mr Sakda’s mobile phone to believe that Anurak had called him just as said by Mr Sakda.
Friday’s ruling also mentioned the evidence obtained in the investigation that Anurak had contacted and demanded the bribe to be paid to him by Mr Sakda and threatened the latter to follow his order several times.
Anurak, who arrived at the court on Friday along with his family, refused to speak to reporters.