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Prinn Panitchpakdi, 44, a former deputy chief of Thailand’s Democrat get together, dealing with allegations of sexual misconduct and rape, offences he has beforehand denied, speaks to members of media in Bangkok, Thailand, April 14, 2022. Picture handed out through Reuters
In accordance with Thai police, 14 ladies formally filed complaints towards former Democrat Occasion deputy Prinn Panitchpakdi, whose father was deputy prime minister and later director-general of the World Commerce Group.
The #MeToo motion — which originated in the USA — swept the globe in 2017 however, till now, Thailand had not seen an analogous wave of public accusations of sexual assault towards a widely known determine.
On Tuesday, Democrat Occasion chief and Deputy Prime Minister Jurin Laksanawisit formally apologized and promised an investigation.
“I really feel very sorry and want to apologize to the general public for the incident associated to Prinn Panitchapakdi,” he mentioned.
Jurin acknowledged he fast-tracked 44-year-old Prinn right into a management function in Thailand’s oldest political get together, which was based with a pro-royal and conservative agenda.
He additionally vowed to look into the get together’s vetting course of and mentioned that he would resign from two committees inspecting gender equality and selling ladies’s rights.
The assertion follows growing calls from ladies’s rights teams for the get together to take Prinn’s alleged misconduct critically.
The allegations towards Prinn have snowballed since he was accused final week of sexually harassing an 18-year-old scholar.
Following the girl’s assertion, he resigned from the Democrat Occasion.
Since then, extra ladies have come ahead to accuse Prinn, with three expenses of rape and sexual harassment filed Saturday.
Lawyer Sittra Biebangkerd, who’s representing a number of the ladies, mentioned Monday he was conscious of “14 in whole proper now”, with out going into additional element.
Among the many accusers is Bangkok Council candidate Anna Vidhyaphum, who alleges that Prinn raped her in 2021.
Prinn has denied all the allegations, including he would contest the accusations in court docket.
He has been launched from custody on a $20,755 bail and is banned from travelling overseas.
Prinn, a former funding banker, was seen as a rising political star after being appointed the Democrat Occasion’s deputy chief in 2019, lower than three years after becoming a member of it.
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