Thailand charges former police officer with attempted bribery on behalf of ex-PM News
Thailand charges former police officer with attempted bribery on behalf of ex-PM

[JURIST] Retired Thai police Col. Charnchai Netirattakarn turned himself in Monday on charges of offering a judge $890,000 in bribes in exchange for a favorable ruling for ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] and the former ruling party Thai Rak Thai (TRT) [party website] in an electoral fraud case [JURIST report]. Charnchai was granted $5,900 bail. He faces a maximum punishment of seven years imprisonment if convicted.

In May, the Constitutional Court for the Kingdom of Thailand [official website, in Thai] convicted the TRT of electoral fraud and ordered the dissolution of the party [JURIST report]. The court also barred Thaksin and 110 other party officials, who were found guilty of bribing smaller political parties in an attempt to influence the outcome of the election, from holding any political office for five years. Thaksin has been living in exile since his ouster in a September 2006 military coup and is currently facing corruption charges [JURIST reports]. The Thai Supreme Court is scheduled to hear [JURIST report] the charges on August 14. AFP has more.

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