By D. Arul Rajoo, Bernama,
Bangkok : The Thai Supreme Court today sentenced former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to two years’ jail after finding him guilty of misusing power in connection with the 772 million baht (about RM76 million) land purchase at Rachadaphisek Road by his wife, Potjaman, about five years ago.
The nine-bench Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders ruled that the 59-year-old policeman-turned-telecommunications billionaire had authority over the state-owned Financial Institutions Development Fund (FIDF) which sold the land to Potjaman.
However, Potjaman, who was sentenced to three years in jail in July by the Criminal Court for tax evasion, was acquitted.
The court issued a new warrant of arrest for Thaksin but struck out the prosecutor’s request to seize the land.
The Supreme Court said Thaksin had violated Article 100 and Article 102 of the National Counter Corruption Act which states that government officials, including prime ministers and cabinet ministers, and their spouses are prohibited from entering into or having interests in contracts with state agencies under their supervision.
The charges against Thaksin and his wife over the 5.3-hectare land located in the capital’s prime area came at the end of long investigations by the military-appointed Assets Examination Committee (AEC) to probe Thaksin’s wrong-doings during his five-year rule.
Not many Thaksin supporters were present at the court when the verdict was read out, but at the Government House, thousands of anti-government protesters cheered and were jubilant over the decision.
Out of the 14 cases the AEC had investigated, the Ratchadaphisek land deal is the first to have successfully been brought before the Supreme Court.
In August, the court had issued a warrant of arrest against the couple after both failed to appear in court, and ordered the forfeiture of the eight and six million baht bail for Thaksin and Potjaman, respectively.
They are seeking asylum in Britain where he recently sold his majority stake in the Manchester City Football Club.
When he was first charged on Feb 28, after returning from 17 months in exile, Thaksin was barred from leaving the country without the court’s permission. Since then, he had made several overseas trips.
On July 31, Thaksin left for Japan before attending the Olympic Games in Beijing and then fled to Britain.
Thaksin had said then that he was leaving for London where he had a home because Thailand’s justice system was not being fair to him and practised double standards.
“I love my country and I am loyal to the King. I may not be a 100 per cent good person but I am not a bad person, either. If I have the chance, I want to come back and die in my own country,” he had said.
Thaksin, who was ousted by the military in a coup on Sept 19, 2006 after five years in office and considered the most popular premier in recent years, also said that his life was in danger.
His ouster came after months of massive street protests against his alleged corrupt practices, as well as the controversial sale of his Shin Corp to Singapore’s Temasek Holdings.
While the educated and Bangkok elite view him as a corrupt politician, the vast majority of the country’s rural population in the north and northeast hold him in high esteem for his populist policies, such as the 30-baht health scheme and financial aid for farmers that saw him winning two elections in a row — 2001 and 2005 — something rare in the country which has seen 18 coups.
His party, Thai Rak Thai, was dissolved by the Constitutional Court in 2007 but his supporters regained power when the People’s Power Party won the election in December last year. But PPP, under the leadership of his brother-in-law and new Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, is also facing dissolution due to similar election fraud charges.
Somchai is also facing five-month long anti-government protests where thousands of protesters are occupying his office at the Government House seeking his resignation as they claim he is a proxy of Thaksin.
Besides the land case, the AEC cited Thaksin for several other irregularities, including the purchase of 1.5 billion baht worth of CTX 9000 scanners for the new airport, the tax-free 73 billion baht sale of Shin Corporation to Temasek in January, 2006 and the two-and three-digit lottery project.
Thaksin’s assets, worth about 69 billion baht (RM6.7 billion), have been frozen by the previous military government.