Published on July 16, 2005

The House committee on justice and human rights has obtained an official US document with the names of Thai politicians and officials suspected of receiving bribes in connection with the CTX bomb-scanner scandal. Panel chairman Suwaroj Palang said the names would be revealed next week.

Speaking upon his return yesterday after an 11-day trip to the United States, the Democrat MP said he had also learned other inside information regarding the scandal when meeting with US authorities. The names on the list include individuals said to be related to a key government figure.

Suwaroj said he had also discovered that a request for key US documents, made by Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam’s committee that investigated the CTX affair, was not processed through normal diplomatic channels at the Thai Embassy. Suwaroj said he would ask the Foreign Ministry to explain why the embassy had been bypassed.

He also questioned Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s reluctance to exercise his power to officially order a criminal investigation into the scandal in the first place, before the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) took charge as a result of a complaint by a political activist. “Perhaps he feared that people close to him could be exposed,” Suwaroj said.

Meanwhile, Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit dismissed a report that ITO Joint Venture, the prime subcontractor of the CTX purchase contract, had asked Airports of Thailand Plc, owner of the Suvarnabhumi Airport project, to scrap the deal.

He said ITO was merely inquiring about its legal status as the deliverer of the 26 CTX machines after a news report on Thursday about an impending recommendation from the attorney general that AOT could now buy the CTX system directly from US manufacturer GE InVision.

Suriya said ITO would still have to install and activate the CTX machines once they were shipped to Thailand under the supervision of AOT, if the government approves the attorney general’s recommendation.

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