Activist demands answers to watch saga

Human rights activist Thicha Nanakorn has led a fresh call for the National AntiCorruption Commission (NACC) to lift the lid on its long-delayed investigation into the luxury watch scandal involving Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon.

She also called on Gen Prawit to resign as he had pledged to do earlier.

Ms Thicha yesterday petitioned the NACC calling on the anti-graft body to speed up its probe into the 25 luxury watches with a combined value of over 30 million baht, which have been seen worn by Gen Prawit.

The activist arrived at the NACC’s headquarters with a group of other people holding placards reading: “Delay is injustice”, “NACC must be fair” and “People are waiting to hear the NACC’s decision”.

She also asked whether other people would be granted the privilege of postponing interviews with the NAAC on four occasions as Gen Prawit had.

The former member of the National Reform Council said the public has major reservations over the NACC’s handling of this case and wanted it to explain why it has not invited Gen Prawit to give a verbal statement.

Gen Prawit had previously announced he would resign if people didn’t want him to stay on, but he did not despite 81,000 people signing a petition on www.change. org calling for him to quit, Ms Thicha said.

She said that that was why she went to the NACC’s headquarters yesterday to find out what was going on in its investigation into the luxury watch scandal.