No truce for Suthep and ex-DSI chief

Political firebrand Suthep Thaugsuban has refused to accept an olive branch from former Department of Special Investigation (DSI) chief Tarit Pengdith, who requested mediation over a graft case involving a scandal-plagued project to build police stations.

“I already said that I don’t want to meet Mr Tarit. Mr Tarit is a law enforcer and he should have upheld justice,” Mr Suthep, a former ex-prime and a co-founder of the Action Coalition for Thailand (ACT) Party, told the media yesterday.

“Yet in practice, the former DSI chief has grossly abused that principle in order to appease the powers-that-be.”

“For me, such behaviour does not deserve to be forgiven. Society should not condone this kind of practice,” he added. Mr Suthep has been engaged in a bitter lawsuit with the former DSI chief.

Mr Tarit on Monday pleaded guilty to slandering Mr Suthep.

He issued a public apology over the aforementioned graft case, ahead of the Supreme Court’s ruling on his defamation case this Friday.

Mr Tarit assigned his lawyer, Thanakorn Waekwaree, to read the prepared statement in which he claimed he had changed his plea from not guilty to guilty, and asked the court to delay delivering its ruling for another 60 days.

He also asked former attorney-general Kanit na Nakhon to mediate in the dispute.

Mr Tarit’s public apology and reversed plea were made despite him being cleared by the Criminal Court and the Appeal Court of the defamation charge.

In the statement, Mr Tarit said he had reviewed his actions and realised he had spoken out of turn because Mr Suthep had acted as recommended by the police chief. Moreover, he was never charged in connection with the scandal.

Mr Suthep filed a defamation lawsuit against Mr Tarit after the latter suggested in a series of press conferences that Mr Suthep was responsible for the failure of a multi-billion-baht project to build 396 police stations worth a total of 6.67 billion baht.

Their construction was endorsed by the cabinet during the former Abhisit Vejjajiva administration, in which Mr Suthep served as deputy premier.

Mr Suthep was accused of not having consulted fellow ministers regarding changes to the project.