A member of Thailand's Palang Pracharath Party, was caught zooming in on photos of a topless woman and her genitals during a parliament session on Wednesday and defended it by saying someone was trying to frame him.
A reporter caught the Chonburi representative red-handed zooming in and out of the pornographic image for at least 10 minutes. The House was debating issues on the annual spending at the time. Anuwat said that he received messages from someone posing as the woman and although he did not know the girl, she had sent him a plea for help, followed by the explicit photos, of course.
Ronnathep Thought the Girl Was Being Forced
He claims he was trying to determine what her motives were during the parliamentary session and as soon as he realized she wanted money, he deleted "all the pictures." Ronnathep said he was zooming in and out of the pictures repeatedly to look for clues as he thought the woman was being forced to send the nude photos against her will.
"I was observing the environment surrounding the girl in the picture to determine whether she was being harassed by some gangsters and forced to take this kind of picture or not," he said, adding that he already explained everything to the party elders.
Ronnathep said he had already provided an explanation to the party elders. Assembly President Chuan Leekpai said there would be no committee review or investigation into the incident as it was a personal matter. He noted that there were no rules that prohibit members from watching any kind of media in the House.
Déjà Vu
This isn't the first time a Thai politician has been caught looking at explicit images during a parliament session. In 2012, Bangkok rep Nat Bantadtan was also photographed looking at pornographic photos on his phone during a House meeting to deliberate the charter amendment bill.
In April that year, images of a woman masturbating were projected on to the main monitor in the session hall. A year later Pheu Thai MP Pongpan Sunthornpan was photographed enjoying some NSFW content on his iPad.
