Will the elusive abbot ever be arrested?
November the 30th. Mark this date on your smartphone’s calendar if you are a fan or a foe of Phra Dhammajayo or Phra Thepyarnmahamunee, the elusive abbot of Wat Phra Dhammakaya.
The embattled monk has kept a low profile for quite some time, and there have been scarcely any reports about him since June 16 when officials of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) and the police tried to arrest him, but were met with stiff resistance from monks and followers who formed a human shield to protect their beloved cleric.
The DSI officials and the police were eventually forced to retreat and lick their wounds.
They seemed to have underestimated the clout of the embattled abbot and the support he has garnered from his tens of thousands of supporters whose loyalty remains as strong as ever despite all the criminal charges lined up against him.
The DSI hopes that, on Nov 30, they will get the news from the Office of the Attorney-General that it has finally decided to proceed with the case against Phra Dhammajayo in the courts.
The charges involve money laundering and receiving stolen property for unlawfully accepting cheques worth hundreds of millions of baht from Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative.
The money is believed to be linked to the multi-billion-baht embezzlement scandal at the cooperative, whose former chairman has been convicted and jailed.
The prosecutors in charge of the case have postponed any decision four times already. They claim there are still gaping holes in the DSI’s charge sheet and have demanded the graft investigators come up with extra evidence to tighten up the case. The fourth postponement came on Nov 7.
But the monk’s opponents and the DSI think otherwise. They suspect the OAG is playing a waiting game to drag the case out, perhaps until there is a democratically-elected government which is more sympathetic to the monk.
Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya, who oversees the DSI, appears frustrated but is too shy to criticise the OAG directly. Last week, he asked reporters: “Who is delaying the case — the DSI or the OAG?”
The minister said he had asked DSI chief Pol Col Paisit Wongmuang about the case and was told that, as far as the DSI is concerned, its charge sheet is complete with all the issues covered. Or, in the other words, the case is water-tight.
There is, however, one big hole in the case. That is the location of the suspect. Is he still hiding in the inner sanctum of Wat Phra Dhammakaya under the protection of his loyal monks and followers?
In traditional legal practice, the police or DSI officials must bring forward their suspects when they present their case file to prosecutors. Likewise, prosecutors bring with them their defendants when a case is forwarded to the court.
So far, there have been three arrest warrants issued by different courts for the embattled Wat Phra Dhammakaya abbot.
The last warrant was issued by the Sikhiu provincial court in Nakhon Ratchasima and concerned forest encroachment in the construction of a huge building called World Peace Valley in Ban Nong Chok, tambon Pongtalong in Pak Chong district.
The court said police must arrest Phra Dhammajayo within the statute of limitations of the case, which is 15 years.
Have you heard what the police have said about the arrest of the monk? This is straight from the horse’s mouth. Pol Gen Srivara Ransibrahmanakul, the national deputy police chief, said the charge against Phra Dhammajayo concerns forest encroachment and is not about murder or assault which would require the police to use force to make an arrest.
Also, the statute of limitations of the case is 15 years, so there is still a lot of time. “We will have him arrested, definitely,’’ he said
Is that assuring from a top police officer? I have not heard yet any reaction from Gen Paiboon or the DSI.
With a new man in charge at the OAG, it is believed that the agency has changed.
But has it really?
The OAG, in the past couple of years, has not had an impressive record, partly due to political interference, in the handling of cases implicating Phra Dhammajayo.
In 2013, then attorney-general Patchara Yutithamdamrong withdrew a case in which the monk and a handful of other people were charged with money laundering which was pending in the court.
The case is about monastic land and cash worth about 959 million baht, allegedly misappropriated by the monk, and later returned to the temple after the scandal broke.
The reasons given by Mr Patchara to justify the withdrawal of the case were: the monk abided by the directives of the late Supreme Patriarch; the monk propagated Buddhism; legal action against him would cause disunity among Buddhists and was not beneficial to the public.
Will there be a fifth postponement by the OAG? And what will be the excuse? Let’s just wait and see.
The prosecutors in charge of the case have postponed any decision four times already.