BANGKOK, 5 November 2013 The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) has encouraged the Senate to turn down the blanket amnesty bill, emphasizing that thousands of corruption cases will be aborted if the bill is passed.
Prior to the Senate’s consideration of the blanket amnesty bill next week, NACC Spokesman Wicha Mahakhun said on Tuesday that the bill would greatly affect the corruption cases investigated by the now-defunct Asset Scrutiny Committee as well as more than 25,000 others examined by the NACC. He warned that the cases would be canceled if the amnesty law was enforced.
According to the spokesman, the controversial legislation is also against the U.N. Convention against Corruption. The NACC will therefore submit a petition to the U.N. on November 6 about the government’s effort to erase the corruption cases.
Mr Wicha pointed out that Section 3 of the amnesty bill would absolve all wrongdoers in corruption cases taking place from 2004-2013 as well as cases related to political demonstrations after the 2006 coup d’?tat from all their charges.
