Former MP Pareena Kraikupt sentenced to 4 years for forest encroachment

Former Palang Pracharath MP for Ratchaburi province, Pareena Kraikupt, has been sentenced to four years and one month in prison, after being found guilty of forest encroachment by the Ratchaburi provincial Court.

Her conviction and imprisonment were disclosed today on Facebook by Veera Somkwamkid, a political activist and secretary-general of the Anti-Corruption People’s Network.

Pareena’s lawyer has applied for bail on his client’s behalf, about which the court is yet to make a decision.

The forest encroachment charges were initiated by Veera, who accused Pareena of illegally occupying 272.96 hectares of land in national forest reserves and land in the Sor Phor Kor land reform program in Chom Bung district of Ratchaburi, which was partially developed into poultry farm.

On April 20, 2022, Pareena was stripped of her parliamentary status and banned from politics for life by the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Office, after she was found guilty by the National Anti-Corruption Commission of gross ethical misconduct, over her illegal occupation of state land.

She was also ordered to pay 7.6 million baht to the Office of the Election Commission, to cover the cost of holding a by-election in Ratchaburi’s Constituency 3 after she was removed as an MP.