Former FM Surapong given 2-year jail term, granted bail

Former foreign minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul was sentenced to two years in prison this afternoon after the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions found him guilty in a malfeasance case in which he is accused  of reinstating a revoked passport for former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

He was granted a temporary release on a five-million-baht bail on a condition that he doesn’t leave the country without prior permission from the court.

Surapong, 65, was  indicted in February last year by the National Anti-Corruption Commission for allegedly violating Article 157 of the Penal Code regarding malfeasance and also committing wrongdoing under the anti-corruption law.

Surapong appeared in the  courtroom this morning with walking stick. He was accompanied by his lawyer and Pheu Thai Party politician Ruangkrai Leewattanakrit, who is his representative.

He said he was confident that he was not guilty  as he had followed the official regulations and  law in the reissuance  of the passport to Thaksin.

While serving as foreign minister in the Yingluck Shinawatra government in 2011, Surapong had ordered the issuance of an ordinary passport to fugitive Thaksin, who has been convicted for abuse of power.  The act was deemed a violation to the Foreign Ministry regulations regarding issuance of passports. The National Legislative Assembly in late March last year voted overwhelmingly to impeach Surapong over the passport scandal.