By Thai Newsroom Reporters
THE SUPREME COURT today (July 9) upheld an earlier court verdict to sentence former Pheu Thai MP Anurak Tangpanithanon to six years in prison due to a five-million-baht payoff which he had unsuccessfully solicited from a senior government official.
Supreme Court judges finally ruled the former Pheu Thai MP of Mukdahan guilty as earlier charged and upheld the Appeals Court’s verdict to sentence him to six years in jail.
Anurak who was immediately put behind bars upon the Supreme Court’s ruling had demanded the five-million-baht kickback in cash from the Department of Groundwater Resources’ former director-general Sakda Wichiansilp in exchange for a smooth passage of funding for the agency in fiscal 2021.
The former lawmaker who was acting as vice chair of a subcommittee under the Budget Committee appropriating the agency’s funding had raised the payoff demand on a telephone call to the former department chief.
Given the attempted extortion and power abuse charges, Anurak had been deprived of his MP status since 2022, prohibited from assuming political positions at any levels for life and banned from casting electoral votes at any levels for 10 years.
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Top and Front Page: Former Pheu Thai MP Anurak Tangpanithanon. File photos: Thai Rath
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