The leader of one among Thailand’s largest political parties apologized Tuesday for the behavior of a former executive accused by greater than a dozen women of sexual harassment, in what some activists called the country’s first “MeToo” moment.
Prinn Panitchpakdi, 44, resigned as vice chairman of the Democratic Party last week and on Saturday was accused of sexual harassment and rape after five women filed independent complaints against him.
Prinn, the son of former World Trade Organization (WTO) chief Supachai Panitchpakdi, denied the accusations and was released on bail on Sunday.
Since then, nine more women have made similar allegations against Prinn, in accordance with police. Prinn has not made any public comment for the reason that latest allegations were made and said he was unavailable when contacted by Reuters on Tuesday.
Party leader Jurin Laksanawisit, an in depth ally of Prinn, on Tuesday apologized for the scandal and acknowledged his role in supporting him as a senior party member.
“I am very sorry and must apologize for everything that happened and was related to a member of the Democratic Party,” Jurin said at a press conference, without going into details. “As party leader, I must admit that I played a key role in the effort to bring Prinn into the party.”
The hashtag #MeToo became popular on social media in Thailand last week, with users expressing outrage at the dimensions of alleged misconduct and the political elite’s sense of impunity.
Jurin, who’s trade minister and deputy prime minister within the ruling coalition, said his party opposes sexual harassment and violence against children and ladies.
He also resigned as chairman of two government commissions on gender equality and ladies’s policy and said the Democratic Party would conduct its own internal investigation.
“We will not step in to protect Prinn, nor will we intervene in the justice process,” he said.
Trairong Piwpan, deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, confirmed to Reuters that 14 victims have thus far come forward with charges against Prinn, and nine of them met with police investigating the cases on Monday.
According to Sittra Biabungkerd of the People’s Lawyers Foundation, a legal aid group representing the victims, all were between 17 and 30 years old on the time of the alleged crimes, some occurred greater than a decade ago, and five said they’d experienced rape.
“There are a lot of other people who are still afraid to come forward,” Sittra said.
