ATTORNEY GENERAL SAYS: 'OFF WITH EVERYBODY'S HEAD!"

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BANGKOK 003790

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/26/2016
TAGS: PGOV PHUM TH
SUBJECT: ATTORNEY GENERAL SAYS: 'OFF WITH EVERYBODY'S HEAD!"

REF: A. BANGKOK 03745


B. BANGKOK 3481

Classified By: Political Counselor Susan M. Sutton, reason 1.4 (b) (d)


1. (C) SUMMARY: On June 27, the Attorney General Office
voted to recommend the dissolution of TRT to the
Constitutional Court, as expected. In a surprise move, it
made the same recommendation on the Democrat Party and three
microparties, acting overnight on the EC's Monday decision in
those cases. Although the AG may be able to make a good case
for its decision, there will probably be suspicions on
several grounds: the AG needed 5 days to carefully consider
the TRT case, but only a few hours to rule on the Democrats.
The Attorney General was suddenly called in to meet Thaksin
late Monday (to discuss the South, he says.) In any case,
the issue is now in the hands of the Constitutional Court,
which has tended to make decisions favorable to the PM. END
SUMMARY.


2. (SBU) The Office of the Attorney General recommended
today that the Constitutional Court dissolve both Thai Rak
Thai (TRT) and the Democrat Party, as well as three
microparties implicated in the TRT election fraud case. The
Attorney General decided the TRT case today, as it had
promised last week. The surprise was the addition of the
Democrat Party case and the microparties. The Election
Commission announced late Monday that it would send the
additional cases to the Attorney General that day. The Office
of AG announced Tuesday afternoon that it would forward all
the cases -- TRT, Democrat and microparties -- to the
Constitutional Court, concurring with the EC that all had
violated the Political Party law and should be dissolved.
The details of the TRT case have been pretty well covered in
the press (ref B). We still do not know all the details of
the case against the Democrats and the microparties. The AG
spokesman said the case against them concerned "violating the
Constitution and carrying out actions deemed detrimental to
democracy."

BACKGROUND ON THE DEMOCRAT CASE
--------------


3. (SBU) TRT filed a case with the EC against the Democrat
Party last month. The accusations were that the election
boycott and call for the King to appoint a Prime Minister
were against the Constitution. Also, a minor member of the
Democrat Party was accused of suborning one of the
microparties to frame TRT. Thaikorn Polsuwan quit the
Democrat Party in 1996 to form his own party, which failed.
He rejoined the Democrats in March this year. After the
election, he says he was approached by a member of one of the
microparties who had been paid by TRT to run. The candidate
was concerned about possible legal problems. Thaikorn told
the press that he was acting on his own when he tried to
convince the candidate to testify against TRT. The
candidate, however, had enlisted the police to have the
discussion recorded, and that recording is part of the TRT
case. Thaikorn claims that the VCD was doctored, and that,
in any case, he was acting on his own. TRT accuses him of
offering money to suborn false testimony on the instructions
of Democrat Party leaders.

CREDIBILITY GAP
--------------


4. (C) The AG may make a case that this is the first time
that these provisions of the Political Party law have been
invoked (REF A),and therefore it makes sense to have the
Constitutional Court rule on all the cases that the EC has
recommended for dissolution. However, they should expect to
have a problem with the optics on this decision. In the case
of TRT, the AG received the file last Thursday, and said that
they needed several days to review the documentation.
Yesterday, the EC suddenly announced that it was sending its
recommendation to dissolve the Democrats to the AG that day,
even while one of the leading members of the EC investigating
subcommittee told the press that the investigation was not
complete and could not be submitted. Then, Thaksin called in
the Attorney General to meet with him late Monday. (The AG
insisted that they discussed on problems about the South,
nothing about the dissolution cases.) Finally, although the
AG office needed 5 days to review the TRT file, they were
ready to vote on the Democrat case overnight. Taken
altogether, this simply does not look good.

COMMENT
--------------


BANGKOK 00003790 002 OF 002



5. (C) The AG decision today lends credence to the theory
that the fates of TRT and the Democrat Party are yoked
together. The threat to both may be used to foster some kind
of compromise solution, which is what many of our Thai
interlocutors are expecting. The Constitutional Court may be
able to look even-handed and impartial by determining that,
in both cases, the fault is with individuals, and not with
the party leadership, and therefore both parties should be
spared. It will now all come down to the Constitutional
Court -- which has consistently voted in ways favorable to PM
Thaksin.
ARVIZU