Charter court to hear more witnesses in cases against Pita, Move Forward
The Constitutional Court will hold two more hearings next month to hear testimonies of more witnesses in two cases against the Move Forward Party and its former leader Pita Limjaroenrat.
The hearing on Wednesday was scheduled last week after the court decided that it needed more time to deliberate the two cases through debate among the judges in response to Move Forward Party’s submission of defence to the court.
The party submitted a written defence on October 2 and a list of additional witnesses on October 18.
In one of the cases, Pita, when he was the Move Forward leader, is accused of violating Article 49 of the Constitution by seeking to overthrow the monarchy through his election campaign to amend the lese majeste law, or Article 112 of the Criminal Code.
In the second case, Pita is accused of violating the charter that prohibits the shareholder of a media firm from contesting the election. The Election Commission alleged that Pita had applied as an election candidate while he was holding shares in iTV Plc.
In the iTV case, the court said it would conduct another hearing on December 20 to hear testimonies from witnesses, the Office of the Constitutional Court announced.
In the Article 112 case, the court on Wednesday deliberated on a plea by Thirayut Suwankesorn, a complainant, for the court to order the dissolution of the Move Forward for allegedly violating Article 49 of the charter by seeking to overthrow the monarchy with its plan to amend Article 112 of the Criminal Code.
After the deliberation, the court decided that it needed more time to hear statements of witnesses.
The court has scheduled another hearing at 9.30am on December 25 to interrogate witnesses and to debate the Article 112 case, the Office of the Constitutional Court announced.
