Court demands disclosure of probe into Prawit luxury watches

Veera Somkwamkid, a political activist and leader of the people’s anti-corruption network, announced on Thursday that the court had on May 2 ordered both the commission and the NACC Office to pay a fine of 5,000 baht each for not complying with its orders.

The court also ordered both parties to disclose the results of the investigation to Veera within 15 days.

Veera said the latest order came after the Central Administrative Court began conducting an inquiry on February 16 this year.

He said he would cite the latest court order when filing a nonfeasance charge against NACC commissioners and the NACC Office at the Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases.

“You’re getting closer to prison,” Veera declared in a Facebook post on Thursday.

The case of Prawit’s collection of luxury watches dates back to 2017 when then-coup leader General Prayut Chan-o-cha formed his interim Cabinet.

When members of the Cabinet posed for a photograph at Government House, Prawit raised his right arm to shade his eyes from the bright sunlight. However, this gesture was seen by many as a move to show off the luxury watch on his wrist.

Eagle-eyed social media detectives launched their own investigation and discovered that the watch on Prawit’s wrist was very expensive. They then scanned other photos of Prawit and found that he did not have just one luxury watch, but actually had 22.

They also found that this collection of luxury watches was not added to Prawit’s statement of assets that he provided NACC upon taking office as a Cabinet member.

After the issue made headlines, Prawit claimed he did not report these watches because they had been borrowed from a very close friend.

Then on December 25, 2017, Veera filed a complaint with the NACC Office, demanding that the NACC investigate Prawit for allegedly filing a false assets statement.

The NACC voted 5:3 to dismiss the case against Prawit in December 2018, saying there were no grounds for the accusation. Veera responded to this by writing to the NACC Office on January 18, 2019, demanding to see the opinions of all NACC officials in charge of the case, the fact-finding report and minutes of the meeting held by the commissioners to discuss the case.

The NACC voted to withhold the information, so Veera appealed to the national public information arbitration committee on May 31, 2019, and the committee ruled in Veera’s favour, ordering the NACC and NACC Office to provide him with the three items of information.

When the NACC refused to comply, Veera took the case to the Central Administrative Court, which again ruled in his favour. However, the NACC and the NACC Office appealed the verdict, taking their case to the Supreme Administrative Court.

The higher court upheld the primary court’s ruling in a ruling issued in April last year, yet Veera received no documents.

He then filed another complaint with the Central Administrative Court, informing it of the NACC and the NACC Office’s refusal to comply with the court order. The court conducted another inquiry on February 16 this year and issued the latest order on May 2.