Updated: Criminal lawfare

Suchart Chomklin is a wealthy man. He’s also something of a conservative political manipulator who has finagled various high-level positions in ministry’s known to be sites of wealth accumulation for ministers and deputy ministers.

Suchart’s Wikipedia page lists him as having entered politics as a member of the Chonburi Provincial Administrative Organization – another site where local “dark influences” seek to control local politics and local business opportunities. It states that he was first elected to parliament in 2011, aligned with the Phalang Chon Party, the party associated with the family of late “godfather of Chon Buri,” Somchai Khunploem or Kamnan Poh, a convicted murderer. The Khunploem family has been powerful in many political parties and its political location has changed with the wind and so has Suchart’s. He is now with, appropriately, the gangster coalition, being in the Bhum Jai Thai Party. Before that, he was with pro-military junta parties Ruam Thai Sang Chart and Palang Pracharath.

Suchart

All of that conservative party skipping has seen Suchart holding several ministerial positions: Minister of Labour (2020-23), Deputy Minister of Commerce (2024-25), and Minister of Natural Resources and Environment and Deputy Prime Minister (2025-26). When he was appointed to that latter position, PPT posted, citing a news report and commentary:

Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Suchart “has no background in environmental affairs and only landed the post because he delivered 16 defected MPs from the pro-junta Ruam Thai Sang Chart Party to back Anutin as prime minister and is now about to join Bhumjaithai…”.

The report notes that “Suchart … has faced scrutiny from the Department of Special Investigation for alleged human trafficking involving Thai berry pickers in Finland and Sweden during his time as Labour Minister. He has also been linked to the Social Security Fund’s controversial purchase of the SKYY9 building, now under investigation by the House committee on state budget planning and spending.”

He may lack of experience in his post but his nefarious activities seem to mean that Suchart can pick a team of rogues to “assist” him.

Top of the list is “Chaiwat Limlikit-aksorn, former chief of Kaeng Krachan National Park, who was dismissed from office over corruption allegations and sentenced to one year in prison without suspension for dereliction of duty. He had earlier been acquitted in the case concerning the disappearance and murder of indigenous rights activist Porlajee “Billy” Rakchongcharoen.”

…Yet another “close aide is Pol. Maj. Gen. Nantachart Suppamongkol, former Chonburi police chief, who has accompanied Suchart since his time as Labour Minister.” Chonburi is one of the most lucrative postings for police wanting to grow rich.  And, to add the rightist. yellow shirt, whistle-blowing political tinge, he’s appointed Chitpas Kridakorn, a former Democrat Party deputy leader and a prominent figure in the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC). She is said to be set to serve as the minister’s secretary.

Most recently, there were allegations of vote-buying against Suchart in the 2026 election.

All of this is background to a story at Prachatai reporting that Hathairat Phaholtap, editor-in-chief of The Isaan Record, has been sued for defamation by Suchart “over an investigative report citing a statement from sources in the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) that Thai politicians have been taking bribe from a former executive of a Finnish berry company.” An English-language version of that investigation is available.

That report begins:

The Isaan Record has obtained evidence from files of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) indicating that two politicians and five high-ranking officials accepted cash bribes from brokers linked to Finnish berry companies.

The evidence includes text messages and images from chat conversations showing agents delivering money to Thai officials, including a case in which a former Minister of Labor allegedly accepted a box packed with cash. All told, the total amount of bribes was more than 36 million baht [about €900,000].

This information aligns with reports from Finnish media during a human trafficking case where prosecutors revealed in court that Thai brokers secretly collected 2,000-3,000 baht [about €50-€75] from each laborer as a fee for documents from the Ministry of Labor required to leave the country.

While there are currently prosecutions in Finland against individuals who exploited laborers from Isaan in a human trafficking case, no comparable prosecutions have yet been brought in Thailand.

Later in the report it is stated that as criminal cases proceeded in Europe, in early 2024, the Department of Special Investigation’s Human Trafficking Case Division charged

two former politicians and two former senior officials from the Ministry of Labor …with offenses related to abuse of office under Sections 149 and 157 of the Penal Code in conjunction with Sections 83 and 86 regarding the embezzlement of funds from Thai laborers, resulting in estimated damages of 36 million baht….

Case files were submitted to the National Anti-Corruption Commission. After the DSI submitted the prosecution files to the NACC, it led to a parliamentary no-confidence debate against Suchart.

DSI evidence:

…revealed that the investigation, conducted in cooperation with the Finnish police, implicated three individuals including a former Minister of Labor and high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Labor, who were accused of collectively soliciting money from 1,600 laborers affiliated with Reuban Company…. Each worker was initially charged 3,000 baht, but she negotiated it down to 2,000 baht each, totaling 3.2 million baht, and then further negotiated down to 3 million baht.

The documents also reveal that politicians and high-ranking officials were soliciting funds from brokers of other companies, including CH Future Co., Ltd…, resulting in damages totaling over 36 million baht.

Suchart denied the allegations that he received “bribes from brokers and private companies from Finland…”. He then took legal action:

I challenge anyone to present evidence, especially concerning money in a box. During my time at the Ministry of Labor, no one ever handed me money, and I will sue those who make such accusations….

The allegations were widely reported at this time and Suchart immediately threatened law suits. He soon filed a case against DSI, claiming the agency was guilty of “malfeasance by implying he took 36 million baht in bribes from Thai workers destined for Finland.” His comments about the berry pickers brought refutations. Taking this legal approach to silencing critics seems a Suchart trait.

Following this, when Hathairat and The Isaan Record produced their story, Suchart sued:

… Hathairat received a court summons … [on 21 March 2026]. The lawsuit was filed by Chalarmchai Sri-yuphak on behalf of Suchart, who is suing Hathairat for 50 million baht in damages. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled at the Criminal Court on 25 May.

According to the complaint document, Suchart sued Hathairat because she posted messages on Facebook between 26 January – 11 February which contain false information and were defamatory. The document noted that one post contained a report from The Isaan Record’s Facebook page along with the caption “Presenting evidence of politicians taking bribes from Berry Finland Co.”

The complaint claimed that ordinary readers would believe that the post referred to Suchart and that he accepted bribes and is involved in human trafficking in relations to Thai workers who went to Finland to work as berry pickers.

Hathairat remains stoic, declaring it “an honour for a small news outlet to draw the attention of a politician like Suchart.” She remained hopeful that the reporting on Thai berry pickers would receive the new government’s attention – that would seem unlikely – and recommended the documentary “Blood Berries,” which won a Best Human Rights Film award at the Montreal Women Film Festival in Canada. Here’s a bit of it:

She also said “that she hopes that lawsuit would be useful to the press more than serving as a signal from politicians for journalists to silence themselves because she believes they were doing the right thing.”

Suchart, of course, is using Thailand’s defamation law to silence critics, which is actually what the law seems designed for: corrupt politicians have been lively in their use of the law, as have alleged grey money scammers and money launders.

Update: Thai Enquirer’s Facebook page updates this saga. It says that Suchart said that he had instructed his lawyer to withdraw a 50-million-baht defamation lawsuit against Hathairat. So far, the report says, there’s been no official confirmation of the withdrawal of the lawsuit.

Suchart reportedly claimed that “he had no intention of silencing the media, adding that his legal team found the reporting followed processes involving the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) and the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), prompting the decision to withdraw the case.”