Supachai charged in forest reserve occupation case

The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) has formally charged former deputy agriculture minister Supachai Phosu with severe ethical misconduct in connection to the illegal occupation of a forest reserve in Nakhon Phanom province.

The anti-graft agency will forward the case to the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office-Holders for a ruling, NACC spokesman Niwatchai Kasemmongkol said yesterday.

Mr Supachai illegally occupied 220 rai of land in the Dong Prathai forest reserve in the northeastern province’s Tha Uthen district, he said.

The NACC found no evidence of Nor Sor 2 land occupancy for 40 plots covering 220 rai, he noted.

In three separate asset declarations to the NACC, Mr Supachai said he occupied 40 land plots covering 220 rai and designated under Nor Sor 2 in Tha Uthen.

The declarations were made on Jan 22, 2008, when he took office as an MP for Nakhon Phanom; on June 3 of the same year when he was named deputy agriculture minister; and again on May 25, 2019, when he took office as an MP.

An NACC investigation found that the politician, who was not qualified to take part in a land reform scheme in the Dong Prathai forest reserve, had allegedly entered into contracts to buy 40 plots from recipients who were qualified to use the land for agricultural purposes.

The law prohibits the transfer of ownership of reformed land. After occupying the plots, Mr Supachai allegedly planted rubber trees.

Mr Supachai, who then held the post of deputy agriculture minister and also was a deputy House speaker, issued letters on July 11 and 12 last year to void the right to possess and use those land plots.

The House committee on the ethics of MPs, chaired by then parliament president Chuan Leekpai, opened an investigation into Mr Supachai, then a Bhumjaithai MP for Nakhon Pathom, in October 2022.

The NACC alleged that the MP’s action to occupy forest land for his own benefit violated the law, and the MP failed to uphold the public interest with respect to the management of state land and forest resources.

It also said that the politicians’ actions deprived landless people, as well as those who owned small plots that were not big enough to support themselves, of the right to acquire land for farming.