Former Bangkok governor sentenced to five years in jail over bribery charges

Former Bangkok governor Bhichit Rattakul was on Tuesday sentenced by the Appeals Court to five years in prison on bribe-taking charges.

The Appeals Court found Bhichit guilty of conspiring with two former officials of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration to take an estimated 1 million U.S. dollars in kickback money in 1997's land purchasing deal.

Apart from Bhichit, the Appeals Court also ruled Somkhad Suebtrakul, a former secretary to the ex-Bangkok governor, and Chuan Pattanavaranond, a former chief officer of Bangsue district in which the purchased land is located, guilty of bribery charges and sentenced them to five years and seven years in jail respectively.

The land in Bangsue area, which the BMA had planned to use as a parking space for its garbage and water trucks, had no access to a road and its price, amounting to some 7.5 million U.S. dollars, had been judged by the Appeals Court to be 1 million U.S. dollars too high.

The ex-Bangkok governor, his former secretary and the former chief officer of Bangsue district had allegedly conspired to take the one-million-dollar kickback from the owner of the land who had offered it for sales to the BMA without competition under a ''special procurement'' process in 1997.

The court of first instance had earlier acquitted the ex-Bangkok governor alongside several former BMA officials of the bribery charges but that verdict was eventually overruled by the Appeals Court.

The trio are likely to engage in a prolonged legal battle until the case has reached the Supreme Court. Endit