By Xinhua
Bangkok : The Thai Supreme Court Tuesday agreed to issue arrest warrants for ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife Pojaman on charges of corruption as they failed to appear in court.
The court also decided to summon Thaksin and his wife to appear for a hearing set on Sep 25.
The judges made the decision after they called a break during the first hearing in the case, which involves a controversial land purchase deal. They had to decide whether to postpone the proceedings or to issue arrest warrants for the couple.
The hearing, first in the case, started at around 1 40 p.m. Tuesday.
The defendants’ lawyers had asked the hearing to be indefinitely delayed on grounds that the former prime minister and his wife felt it was unsafe for them to travel to Thailand now.
But public prosecutors asked the court to issue arrest warrants against Thaksin and Pojaman.
The charges involve a 772-million-baht (over $23 million) five-hectare land purchase deal in Bangkok’s downtown Ratchadaphisek area, which changed hands from the office of the Financial Institutes Development Fund to Pojaman, wife of then prime minister Thaksin, in 2003.
Thaksin and his wife were charged with breaching laws that bar state officials and their spouses from doing business with a state agency.
Thaksin remains in self-imposed exile in Britain with his family since he was ousted as prime minister in the Sep 19 coup last year.