Embattled Thammanat Prompao considers 100 defamation lawsuits against accusers

PHOTO: Reuters

The high-profile deputy Agriculture Minister, and government ‘fixer’, Thammanat Prompao says he will file about 100 defamation lawsuits against individuals and organisations who have dug up his criminal past, including his reported heroin-trafficking past in Australia, including a four year jail term, and people questioning his educational credentials.

He claims they are all a plot to discredit him.

Read the earlier Thiager story about the Sydney Morning Herald exposé HERE.

He claimed yesterday that he will not give further clarifications regarding his drug history and educational qualifications after his statement on the matter in parliament on Wednesday, noting that the allegations were part of a “political ploy to discredit him”.

He also showed the media a transcript and a doctorate degree from a “university in California” in an attempt to prove that he did not lie about his degree, as had been alleged on the CSILA Facebook page in the US.

CSILA claims it has tracked down the ‘Californian University’, an abandoned two story building in the Philippines.

Thammanat complained to the media that this is not the first time that he has been unfairly attacked regarding his criminal past or challenged over his educational background. He accused the whistleblower at the CSILA Facebook page of being a Thai fugitive who is now living in France.

(CSILA often chases cases of high-profile Thai politicians, criminals and police providing alternative evidence and commentary about their claims.)

The deputy agriculture minister said that he hasn’t discussed the controversies with PM Prayut Chan-o-cha, claiming that it was a personal matter.

Meanwhile, Seri Ruam Thai party leader Seripisut Temiyavet said, in his capacity as head of the House Anti-Corruption Committee, that the committee will investigate Thammanat’s qualifications as the committee’s first task regarding his criminal past and educational background.

Seripisut, a former police chief, who claimed to be the one who tipped off the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper in Australia about Thammanat’s drug case in 1993, also questioned the Thai PM’s judgement in appointing him to a cabinet post.

“The Prime Minister should also be held accountable for appointing a tainted individual to an official post.”

SUORCE: Thai PBS World