Sorrayuth appeal hangs in balance

Pressure is mounting on the attorneygeneral to decide whether to endorse imprisoned former TV news anchor Sorrayuth Suthassanachinda’s appeal to the Supreme Court.

A Criminal Court source said if Sorrayuth wants to appeal over the issue of facts in addition to legal issues, judges in the lower court and the Appeal Court who handled the case or the attorney-general must endorse his appeal.

The defendant must submit a request for an appeal via judges in the lower court so the judges handling the case will decide if there was any major problem with their ruling and if it should be forwarded to the Supreme Court, the source said.

If the lower court judges conclude the case should not be taken to the highest court, they will not sign to endorse the appeal request and the request will then be sent to the judges at the Appeal Court handling the case to consider whether to endorse the appeal request.

If the Appeal Court judges do not endorse it, there is only the attorney-general left to do so.

However, the source said that so far no appeal request has been submitted to the judges handling the case.

There are seven people who have the authority to endorse the appeal request — three judges in the lower court, three judges in the Appeal Court, and the attorney-general, the source said.

But no judges at the lower court and the Appeal Court had disagreed with Sorrayuth’s imprisonment decision, the source said.

Bangkok Remand Prison chief Krit Krasaedhibaya said Sorrayuth will remain in the prison’s new-detainee section “for some time” pending a process to submit an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Mr Krit also said Sorrayuth may be asked to help with the prison’s public relations work and educate other inmates given his knowledge and capabilities.

Sorrayuth was imprisoned last Tuesday after the Appeal Court upheld his 13-year and four month sentence for the embezzlement of state advertising revenue. The Supreme Court rejected his bail application.

Sorrayuth’s case involved his company, Rai Som Co, and two other defendants — Rai Som employee Montha Theeradet and former Mass Communications Authority of Thailand (MCOT) employee Pichapa Iamsa-ard.

The court found the defendants used forged documents to cheat the MCOT out of 138 million baht in advertising revenue during Sorrayuth’s tenure as host of a TV news programme a decade ago.

The lower court in February 2016 sentenced Sorrayuth and Montha each to 13 years and four months in jail for helping Pichapa and a government official commit malfeasance.

Pichapa was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. The other two men were also denied bail.