- May 4, 2021
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Attorney General's Office
The Attorney General's Office (AGO) in Thailand serves as the confederal and provincial governments’ legal advisory bodies, employing state-aligned prosecutors to present politically motivated charges against the defendants, given that definitive evidence exists. Each provincial government has its own Attorney General's Office and uses such an organization to conduct lawfare against counter-revolutionary forces or foreign actors under their jurisdiction. Normally, high-level government officials utilize the AGO to also serve as their advocate for civil and criminal grievances. Contrastingly, career public servants cooperate with public prosecutors from the People’s Prosecutor’s Offices (PPO) as they align more with local Community Assemblies. The AGO remains in existence because of a confederal agreement recognizing that the state and its apparatus deserve their defense mechanisms during the transitional period, given the confederal principles and radical devolution. In practice, legal professionals from the Public Law Offices and PPO heavily obstruct an attorney general’s investigation, who does not hold an investigative prerogative or working relationship with the community police department. The confederal government also has its Attorney General's Office, but rarely utilizes it; most cases are under provincial federations’ jurisdiction. The most recent deployment of the confederal government’s AGO was when the Rotating Coordinator was under an attempted hostage-taking situation. However, a public defender successfully secured a guilty verdict, overturning lower courts’ imprisonment order and opting for rehabilitation.
