The Criminal Court has acquitted former deputy prime minister Plodprasop Suraswadi of a charge of illegally approving the shipment of 100 Bengal tigers to China in 2002 while serving as chief of the Royal Forest Department.
Mr Plodprasop was indicted on a malfeasance charge in a case brought by prosecutors on behalf of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) in late 2012.
Prosecutors alleged he approved a request to send the tigers abroad without considering whether such a move would violate the law.
Plodprasop Suraswadi
In 2002, Manop Lauprasert, head of the Thailand Office of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites Thailand), was asked by Si Racha Tiger Zoo company for a licence to send tigers to Sunya Zoo in China's southern province of Hainan for feeding and breeding during October and December that year.
Mr Manop forwarded the request to Mr Plodprasop, who approved it. However, prosecutors said the request “was made for commercial purposes'', and was therefore illegal.
The NACC found in 2007 that the shipment of the 100 tigers was for commercial purposes as Si Racha Tiger Zoo and Sunya Zoo are private entities.
As a result, the NACC found Mr Plodprasop guilty of malfeasance, while Mr Manop was also implicated in wrongdoing.
Mr Plodprasop argued that the tigers were imported legally from India by the zoo and their export should not affect Thailand's natural resources. The law empowered him to approve the tigers' export.
Chinese authorities had also confirmed they wanted the tigers for research and that the animals "now lived comfortably and had multiplied to over 500", he told reporters in 2007.
The court on Tuesday found Mr Plodprasop not guilty of violating any law or of malfeasance in endorsing the shipment of the Bengal tigers.
It said section 26 of the Wildlife Protection Act authorises the director-general of the Forest Department to approve exports of protected wildlife species for research and conservation purposes.
Prosecutors may appeal the ruling within 30 days.
Somsak Toraksa, Mr Plodprasop’s lawyer, said he is preparing a case for compensation for damage to his client’s reputation.