The leader of the Democrat Party has apologised for the sex scandal involving a former party deputy leader and accepted responsibility.
Jurin Laksanawisit, who is also the commerce minister and a deputy prime minister, was speaking during a press conference called at the party headquarters on Monday.
He said he was deeply sorry about the issues involving Prinn Panitchpakdi and apologised on behalf of the party.
"As the party leader, I played important roles in recruiting Mr Prinn... As the issue arose while I am the party leader I cannot avoid responsibility," the leader of the 76-year-old coalition party said.
To show responsibility, Mr Jurin said, he had resigned from two government committees on gender equality and women's policies.
He said the Democrat Party opposed sexual harassment, violence against women and children and gender discrimination.
He confirmed that the party would not protect Mr Prinn or attempt to interfere with the justice system.
The party had formed a committee to find out the facts in Mr Prinn's cases and to look into rehabilitation for the affected people.
Mr Prinn is the son of Supachai Panitchpakdi, who is a former deputy prime minister, a former director-general of the World Trade Organisation and a former secretary-general of the UN Conference on Trade and Development.
Mr Prinn resigned from the Democrat Party last week to fight allegations of sexual harassment and rape.
