The corruption trial of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has begun in Bangkok, almost two years after he was overthrown in a coup.

Mr Thaksin and his wife face charges related to a Bangkok real estate deal.

The couple deny any wrongdoing, saying the charges of abuse of power against them are politically motivated.


FULL REPORT FROM THE BBC:

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7494664.stm

Brad the Impala wrote:

The corruption trial of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has begun in Bangkok

The last time that I read on the major newspapers about the outline of a weeks long process for the trying/deciding of a verdict for Thaksin, like I read yesterday, was a Friday morning years ago on which then later in the afternoon a CNN Int'l newswoman gleefully read on my TV set from her teleprompter the anxiously awaited "good" news of Thaksin's acquittal, suddenly, weeks before the Constitutional Counter Corruption Commision was to have properly decided that verdict. I suspect the same "cheers" will be forthcoming on this episode soon as well, however he manages to arrange the acquital this time.

I hope they are hung out to dry.

I bet all of Toxin's money, and Manchester City Football Club's that he gets away with it.......

I don't know. He seems to have lost his magic touch. His nominee government is going down in flames over some pretty petty shit. His lawyers are in jail for trying to bribe the court. They got 6 months for contempt and there's a bribery investigation underway which could lock them up for much longer.

The case against Thaksin and his wife in this sweetheart land deal appears to be pretty air-tight. The scholars I have seen quoted seem to think it will be a slam-dunk. And of course there are several other pending cases in the pipeline as well.

If the current government in forced to resign over this stupid UNESCO listing of Preah Vihar things could get pretty rocky. Nappadon appears to at least be on his way out as foreign minister and he is another one of Thaksin's former lawyers. The Nation and the BKK Post have good coverage of all this stuff.

fedssocr wrote:

The case against Thaksin and his wife in this sweetheart land deal appears to be pretty air-tight.

Would you please indicate what scholars have said what and/or note the articles?  I've read almost every article I've seen in the Bangkok Post and the Nation about this particular charge and I haven't read anything like that.

Adding a few facts here for digestion (although this may do little to those that have already convicted the guy):
1.  The case involves 4 Bangkok parcels that were owned by the FIDF (Financial Institutions Development Fund). The parcels had been placed up for auction by prior governments and the FIDF had the parcels appraised and placed them for sale at public auction.  At the time, the FIDF, an arm of the Bank of Thailand, was supervised by Bank of Thailand Governor Pridiyathorn Devakula.
2.  The appraised price, according to a couple of articles, was "around 700 million baht.  Shinawatra's wife, Potjaman, bought the land for 772 million baht.
3.  The prosecution claims that Mrs. Shinawatra, by purchasing the land, violated Article 100 of the 1999 National Corruption Act which states that government officials and their spouses are prohibited from having interests in contracts made with state agencies under their authority; however, a section of that Act specifically states that persons committing malfeasance must be direct supervisors of the involved state agency.
4.  The problem with the case from the prosecution's point of view is that Shinawatra didn't directly supervise either the Bank of Thailand or the FIDF and, as such, it could be argued that the statute (Article 100) doesn't apply at all.  Further, Article 29 of the Bank of Thailand Act of 1942 states that the prime minister does not have jurisdiction to oversee the FIDF. The other prosecution problems may be that the purchase was made in the open, multiple bidders were involved, and Shinawatra's wife ended up with the highest bid which was for more than the FIDF's appraised price.

I remain confused about the Thai legal system. Governor Pridiyathorn's testimony to the court occurred in secret and neither Shinawatra or his wife or their lawyers were allowed in the courtroom (so much for the concept of confrontation of witnesses and the ability to cross-examine!).

Based on what I have read (including the wording of the two statutes involved), this type of criminal case would not survive a motion to dismiss in the west; regardless, clearly "TIT" applies and there probably are other facets to this case that haven't been printed. And, of course, we don't know the actual testimony of the Governor.

"He seems to have lost his magic touch. His nominee government is going down in flames over some pretty petty shit."

The “shit” would only be considered to be petty in a country as corrupt as Thailand.  

PPP is already planning to organize a new party, and move to it, just as they moved when their Thai Rak Thai party was dissolved.   I expect Taksin to be in charge of the country for years to come.

The petty shit I was referring to was this silly Preah Vihear World Heritage listing that appears to be bringing down the whole cabinet. Thailand has no real claim to the temple which is most certainly Khmer and is on land that, while in dispute on the Thai side, has been Cambodian property as adjudicated by the World Court 45 years ago.

As to the land deal I will have to dig around some to find the quote in question. I think it was in one of the many recent editorials in The Nation. Even if the land case somehow fails there are many other cases in the pipeline. He's going to be tied up in court for quite a while. He must think that he's in trouble or he wouldn't have had his lawyers trying to bribe the court.

When I was in BKK last week, there was a HUGH anti-toxin Demonstration near MBK.   He's definitely not popular in BKK.

JakeNasty wrote:

When I was in BKK last week, there was a HUGH anti-toxin Demonstration near MBK.   He's definitely not popular in BKK.

Hugh was there???!!!  The bitch told me he was summering in Cannes!

Unfortunately, it seems that Bangkok is one of the few places where he is unpopular.....

I don't think he did that bad a job of being PM - I've seen a lot worse than him around.  Whether he did sell the "family silver" or had a few deals going remains to be seen, tell me a country who doesn't have "things" going behind closed doors, even the US and Britain do dodgy deals.  Thaksin created a lot of good in Thailand especially towards some of the poor and in some of the outer regions.

Thats what it appears on the surface. Wonder why there was so much vicious opposition to his antics, that lead to a coup?? Of course all Thai governments are corrupt to some extent, but this was one man looking as if he was creating a dictatorship; every criticism lead to a lawsuit, the cases heard by judges who were his cronies. Eventually the press were scared to oppose him because of the huge financial penalties; he planned to buy an English football club using public funds; His brother and brother in law were both promoted over head of others into powerful army and police positions; thousands were murdered during his drug war and no police investigations of any depth took place; he changed the law regarding taxing communications firms that only benefited one company; he changed the law on foreign ownership of telecomms firms the day before he sold Shin to Singapore; his maid had a huge number of shares in Shin when he was PM - how can a maid afford to buy shares valued at millions of US$... and there's much more too.