BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — A Thai court on Thursday gave prison sentences to 11 people, including a former Cabinet minister still on the run, for their parts in one of the biggest corruption scandals in the country's history.
The Dusit district court in Bangkok found Wattana Asavahame guilty in connection with massive graft surrounding the construction of a 23 billion baht ($690 million) wastewater treatment plant at Klong Dan, in Wattana's home province of Samut Prakarn, just east of Bangkok.
The court ruled that Wattana, while serving as deputy interior minister, had conspired with the other defendants to illegally buy and sell land connected with the project.
Wattana was sentenced in absentia to three years in prison. His 10 co-defendants, who were present in the court, received the same sentence, while eight companies involved in the scandal were fined 6,000 baht ($180) each.
In August last year, the Supreme Court found Wattana guilty in connection with the bribery of officials involved with the project, and sentenced him in absentia to 10 years in jail after he jumped bail and disappeared. Thai press reports say he is in neighboring Cambodia.
Wattana in the 1980s and 1990s had been one of Thailand's so-called "godfathers," political bosses using money and influence to deliver elections to their chosen parties.
He had never previously been convicted of any major crime, but allegedly had links to several illicit activities, including oil smuggling. The U.S. government at one point denied him a visa because of suspicions that he was involved in drug smuggling.
The wastewater project was first approved by the Cabinet in 1993 and construction was launched two years later. It was expanded in 1997, but halted in 2003 — when it was 95 percent completed — because of the corruption allegations.
The prosecutions revolved around the 1992-93 purchase of land at the site that was resold to the government project at highly inflated prices.
