Manoonkrit Roopkachorn - Thaksin's 2002 Corruption Case

Thaksin's 2002 Corruption Case

Senate Speaker Manoonkrit, citing a petition signed by some 60,000 people, forwarded a formal request to the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC) to investigate four Constitution Court judges — Kramol Thongdharmachart, Phan Chanpan, Sak Techacharn and Jumpol na Songkhla — in connection with their rulings on the asset-concealment case against the Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, which then triggered major legal questions and a constitutional paradox. President Uthai Pimchaichon, who was also speaker of the House of Representatives, asked the Constitution Court to block the investigation launched by the NCCC. "Apart from the tough questions of whether the NCCC was empowered to investigate Constitution Court judges, and whether the court could stop such a probe, the country was threatened with parallel showdowns between key political institutions - NCCC versus the Constitution Court and the Senate versus the House of Representatives. The Administrative Court was also dragged into the fray, following a petition by three of the investigated judges."