Thailand's army-backed government said yesterday it would seize
21 bank accounts with assets worth 52.9 billion baht (US$1.53
billion) from ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his
wife.
The announcement from the Asset Examination Committee (AEC),
established after a September coup against Thaksin, followed months
of investigations into alleged corruption during his five years in
office.
No charges have been filed in court, but the AEC said in a
statement it had come to the conclusion that "Thaksin and his
cronies had been corrupt and committed wrongdoings."
AEC committee member Kaewsun Atibhodhi told a news conference
the seizure order was not final and said Thaksin, who has not been
allowed to return to Thailand since the coup, could challenge it in
court.
"We have to confiscate these assets for now. The AEC has enough
evidence to believe that he has committed wrongdoings," Kaewsun
said.
A former policeman and telecoms tycoon, Thaksin came to power in
2001 as head of the Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party,
promising to improve the lives of the rural poor with universal
public health care and cheap credit schemes.
He was wildly popular in the countryside, but critics and
political opponents said he used his vast wealth to blind voters to
"policy corruption" under which companies such as his family's Shin
Corp telecoms empire benefited unfairly.
The US$3.8 billion sale of Shin Corp to Singapore state
investment company Temasek, which netted Thaksin's family US$1.9
billion, in early 2006 triggered the mass street protests that led
ultimately to the army's decision to launch Thailand's 18th coup in
75 years of on-off democracy.
"They have illegally obtained wealth through abuses of power to
benefit Shin Corp," the AEC statement said.
Thaksin, who was in New York at the time of the coup, has spent
most of his time since then either in London or traveling round
Asia playing golf and giving interviews that have upset Bangkok's
military rulers.
His Bangkok-based lawyer, Noppadol Pattama, vowed to fight the
ruling, which he described as "an affront to the rule of law that
tarnishes Thailand's image in the international arena."
"It is a political decision that is legally baseless. The aim is
to prevent the ex-PM and his wife from running their own normal
lives," he said.
Sak Kohsaengruang, another AEC committee member, said Thaksin
had 60 days in which to appeal but would have to prove where his
cash came from if he wanted to see it again.
The AEC highlighted five areas in which it said it had most
evidence of graft against Thaksin: his wife's purchase of a prime
plot of Bangkok real estate, a national rubber saplings project,
the purchase of high-tech bomb scanners for Bangkok's new airport,
a national lottery and loans from a state-run bank.
(China Daily June 12, 2007)
