Thai police begin searching scandal-hit Buddhist temple following prime minister’s order
Influential monk, Phra Dhammachayo, is accused of accepting embezzled funds worth US$33 million from the owner of a cooperative bank
Thai security forces entered the country’s biggest Buddhist temple on Thursday to search for an influential monk wanted for money laundering after the junta leader declared he was imposing control over the vast temple complex.
With political parties and many activists silenced since a coup in 2014, the scandal-hit Dhammakaya Temple is a rare institution in defying the junta, which has so far trodden warily in confronting a group that claims millions of followers.
Authorities have already started a search operation seeking the individual under arrest warrants
“Authorities have already started a search operation seeking the individual under arrest warrants,” Paisit Wongmuang, chief of the Department of Special Investigation, told reporters.
They went in hours after Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha used a security measure that critics dub “the dictator’s law” to give forces a free hand to arrest, search, demolish or do anything else they see fit to apprehend Phra Dhammachayo.
The former abbot, 72, faces charges of conspiracy to launder money and receive stolen goods, as well as taking over land unlawfully to build meditation centres. His aides dismiss the accusations as politically motivated.
The controversy in part reflects more than a decade of divisive politics in Thailand, which have penetrated all aspects of life - including the religion followed by some 95 per cent of Thais.
Although the temple has no overt political affiliation, the abbot is widely believed to have had links with populist former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was overthrown in 2006. Prayuth became leader after a government led by Thaksin’s sister was toppled in 2014.