Senator Thawil Pliensri has called on prosecutors to appeal the Supreme Court’s acquittal of former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra of malfeasance in the case he brought against her, according to a source familiar with the case.
Mr Thawil, who is a former National Security Council (NSC) secretary-general, on Tuesday petitioned the Office of the Attorney-General (OAG) to appeal the Dec 26 ruling by the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions, the source said.
The alleged abuse of power occurred on Sept 4, 2011 when Yingluck signed an order transferring Mr Thawil, the NSC chief at the time, to work as an adviser to the prime minister.
She then appointed Pol Gen Wichean Potephosree, the national police chief, to replace Mr Thawil at the NSC. That created a vacancy in the police chief’s office, which she proposed to be filled by Gen Priewphan Damapong, a deputy chief and brother of ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra’s former wife Khunying Potjaman Na Pombejra.
The proposal was approved by the Police Commission.
The court last month ruled that Yingluck had no intention of causing damage to Mr Thawil and that it was a normal transfer, not part of a plot to vacate the position of police chief and appoint a relative to the job.
Together with the ruling, the court revoked a warrant for the arrest of Yingluck, who failed to show up in November 2022 for the trial in the case.
However, in his petition to the OAG, Mr Thawil reaffirmed his belief that the transfer order was unfair and could still be considered an abuse of authority by Yingluck, who chaired the Police Commission in her capacity as prime minister.
Mr Thawil had previously petitioned the Supreme Administrative Court, which ordered the revocation of the transfer order.
The Constitutional Court on May 7, 2014, voted to remove Yingluck as caretaker prime minister for abuse of power over the transfer order.
Yingluck, 56, fled the country in August 2017, just before a court ruling that found her guilty of dereliction of duty in a rice-pledging programme that ran up at least 500 billion baht in losses, some of it from corruption. She was subsequently sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.
There has been speculation that she might consider returning to the country to face the legal system this year. Her elder brother Thaksin, who came back to Thailand last August, will be eligible for parole on Feb 22 after serving six months of a one-year prison sentence — reduced from eight years by a royal pardon — and not a single night of it in a jail cell.