PM Anutin sues iLaw director for defamation over Senate selection fraud allegations

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has filed a defamation suit against iLaw Director Yingcheep Atchanont for alleging that the PM was involved in the Senate selection collusion case. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled on 14 December. Meanwhile, the Director insists that if the case is accepted, he will challenge the PM to attend the trial in person, and he would present the investigation files in the case as evidence before the court.

Yingcheep Atchanont

MP Supachai Jaisamut, Chair of the ruling Bhumjaithai Party’s Legal Affairs Division, filed a defamation lawsuit against Yingcheep on behalf of the PM on 15 September. 

The case stems from the submission on 21 July of a letter requesting the parliamentary opposition to investigate allegations that nine politicians, including PM Anutin, were involved in Senate selection collusion. 

The complaint states that Director Yingcheep held a press conference on that day and gave interviews to several news outlets, alleging that Anutin was involved in the case. It describes Yingcheep’s remarks as baseless. 

Yingcheep said, for example, that a Senate candidate met Anutin, asking him to help with the Senate selection. While Anutin acted in a reserved manner, he gave the phone number of a relevant person. That phone number was later found to belong to Suksomrauy Wantaneeyakul, then a Bhumjaithai MP for Amnat Charoen, who is now a Minister attached to the PM’s Office.

During iLaw’s press conference on Thursday (8 October), Yingcheepstated that his request for the investigation into the alleged involvement in the fraud case was based on verified facts and eyewitness testimony; He asserted that his action did not constitute defamation, as he had simply done what any citizen should do.

For this reason, the iLaw Director argued that the lawsuit was not filed in good faith, and requested the Court not to accept the case for further deliberation. However, if the Court accepted the case, he challenged the PM to attend the trial and testify in person to establish what was true or what was false, and Yingcheep would exercise the right to present the investigation files in the Senate selection collusion case as evidence. 

In addition, he said he could ask the Court to summon prominent figures with relevant information to testify. Those mentioned included Election Commissioners, officials from the Department of Investigation (DSI), former Bhumjaithai MPs, Senate candidates, witnesses to the collusion, and People’s Party MP Parit Wacharasindhu to whom he submitted the letter on 21 July.

The Director viewed the case as an opportunity to obtain more information and find out what eyewitnesses had known about the Senate collusion. 

Yingcheep also noted that if the proceedings are considered a burden to him due to the need to attend the trial and review tons of related documents, Anutin has the option of withdrawing the complaint so that it would not create a burden on everyone involved. 

Separately, the ruling Bhumjaithai Party and Paradon Prissanananthakul, Minister Attached to the PM’s Office, also submitted a letter to the Office of the Personal Data Protection Committee, claiming that iLaw publicly disclosed Paradon’s personal phone number . However, Yingcheep denied the allegation and argued that the Personal Data Protection Act does not apply to data collected for the purpose of public reporting. 

A senator also filed a complaint with the Commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau against officials from DSI and Yingcheep over publicly disclosing 90,000 pages of documents in the Senate electoral collusion case. In response, Yingcheep stated that it was a “joke”, as the complaint did not even identify complainant and did not explain how that person was affected.