Boonsong, 4 others fail to block rice scheme lawsuits

FORMER COMMERCE Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom and four other figures facing a combined Bt20-billion-plus in civil compensation lawsuits over the alleged fake government-to-government rice deals have failed to obtain a court injunction against a government order to proceed with the controversial moves.
The Central Administrative Court yesterday said in a statement that a temporary legal protection against the government’s order was unnecessary because there was no proceeding to freeze or confiscate the defendants’ assets, so no damage had occurred.
Boonsong, former deputy commerce minister Poom Sarapol and three other former senior Commerce Ministry officials have been held responsible for alleged bogus G-to-G deals between the Thai and Chinese governments for the sale of Thai rice during the Yingluck Shinawatra government, which executed the country’s biggest ever rice-pledging scheme and resulted in an estimated loss to the state of over Bt500 billion.
The alleged fake G-to-G rice deals were announced at that time to support the government’s unlimited domestic rice-pledging scheme in which farmers were encouraged to grow and sell paddies to the government for Bt15,000 per tonne, compared to the prevailing market price of only Bt7,000-8,000 per tonne.
Resorting to using the civil liability law against state officials, the Commerce Ministry proceeded with the massive compensation lawsuits against Boonsong, Poom, Manas Soyploy, a former director-general of the Department of Foreign Trade, his former deputy Tikamporn Natvorathat, and Akrapong Theepvajara, ex-director of the Foreign Rice Trading Office.
According to the law, the Department of Legal Execution is empowered to act on the government’s order to freeze or confiscate the defendants’ properties to enforce the civil liability lawsuits pending a court verdict on the cases.
The Administrative Court said injunctions are legal only when the absence of such a legal protection would cause irreparable damage to the defendants. Since the government has not moved to freeze the defendants’ assets, there is no damage to fit the court’s criteria in these cases. 
So far, there have been only notices from the Commerce Ministry that the defendants have to pay the massive compensation to settle the civil liability cases or else the Department of Legal Execution will take up the cases and freeze their assets for further legal actions. 
The Department of Legal Execution said yesterday it had not received details of the cases from the Department of Foreign Trade.
Meanwhile, the court said it would proceed with the cases in which Boonsong and the other former officials argued that the government’s order for civil liability and compensation lawsuits were not legal. The defendants also petitioned the court to revoke the government’s order.
Former premier Yingluck also faces a trial in the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders for alleged negligence of duty while overseeing the rice-pledging scheme.
Regarding the civil liability law, Yingluck has been ordered by the government to pay compensation of over Bt35 billion for causing damage to the state due to the big losses incurred during the rice-pledging scheme.