BANGKOK, Jan 12 (TNA) - The Thai Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions on Tuesday announced the completion of its hearing on the Bt76 billion (US$2.2 billion) seized assets of fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra and set February 26 at 1pm as its date to gissuedive verdict on the case.
The court cancelled additional examination of witnesses scheduled for January 14, saying that evidence of testimony and documentation was now compelete.
In the final inquiry session, the four witnesses who testified were former information and communication technology minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom, Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) academic Somkiat Tangkitwanich who studied the conversion of the telecommunications concession contracts negotiated by the Thaksin Shinawatra administration, and representatives of the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) and the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).
The court instructed the defence and the prosecution to file their written closing statements within 30 days.
The court has set February 26 as the day for the ruling.
The court will rule whether to seize the assets gained from the sale of telecom giant Shin Corp at Bt76.6 billion plus interest on charges that the ex-premier had acquired his massive wealth through illegal practices.
The now-disbanded Assets Examination Committee (AEC) earlier ruled that Mr Thaksin had become unusually rich after selling Shin Corp to Singapore's Temasek Holdings in January 2006 without paying taxes.
The duo had informed the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC) that their assets were transferred to their children, close relatives and friends before Mr Thaksin became a politician.
The ousted premier was elected prime minister for two consecutive terms from 2001 and was removed from power in a 2006 coup d’etat.
The anti-graft agency froze his fortune after the telecommunications magnate-turned-prime minister was toppled in 2006.
Ousted in a bloodless coup three years ago, Mr Thaksin was sentenced to a two-year prison term for abusing his power when he was prime minister to help his ex-wife purchase prime land in Bangkok’s Ratchadapisek Road. However, he said the case was politically motivated and that he could not receive a fair trial in Thailand.
He now lives mainly in the United Arab Emirates. His Thai passport was cancelled but he obtained passports given by several foreign countries.
The court cancelled additional examination of witnesses scheduled for January 14, saying that evidence of testimony and documentation was now compelete.
In the final inquiry session, the four witnesses who testified were former information and communication technology minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom, Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) academic Somkiat Tangkitwanich who studied the conversion of the telecommunications concession contracts negotiated by the Thaksin Shinawatra administration, and representatives of the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) and the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).
The court instructed the defence and the prosecution to file their written closing statements within 30 days.
The court has set February 26 as the day for the ruling.
The court will rule whether to seize the assets gained from the sale of telecom giant Shin Corp at Bt76.6 billion plus interest on charges that the ex-premier had acquired his massive wealth through illegal practices.
The now-disbanded Assets Examination Committee (AEC) earlier ruled that Mr Thaksin had become unusually rich after selling Shin Corp to Singapore's Temasek Holdings in January 2006 without paying taxes.
The duo had informed the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC) that their assets were transferred to their children, close relatives and friends before Mr Thaksin became a politician.
The ousted premier was elected prime minister for two consecutive terms from 2001 and was removed from power in a 2006 coup d’etat.
The anti-graft agency froze his fortune after the telecommunications magnate-turned-prime minister was toppled in 2006.
Ousted in a bloodless coup three years ago, Mr Thaksin was sentenced to a two-year prison term for abusing his power when he was prime minister to help his ex-wife purchase prime land in Bangkok’s Ratchadapisek Road. However, he said the case was politically motivated and that he could not receive a fair trial in Thailand.
He now lives mainly in the United Arab Emirates. His Thai passport was cancelled but he obtained passports given by several foreign countries.
3 comments:
Well, may be Khmers can learn this Thai process and seize all Hun Sen's assets, and send him to join Thaksin in Dubai or go to hell.
It is the time for the Khmers to set up the National Counter Corruption Commission like the Thais.
UK minister's niece jailed for murderBy Rory Mulholland, AAP
January 13, 2010, 7:22 am
The niece of a British government minister was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Tuesday for drunkenly stabbing a Frenchman she picked up in a bar.
A French court convicted Jessica Davies, 30, of killing 24-year-old Olivier Mugnier in November 2007 in her apartment in the chic Paris suburb of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
The niece of the multi-millionaire junior defence minister Quentin Davies admitted killing her victim, but said she had a blackout and only remembered coming round to find him bleeding to death on her bed.
She was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment combined with 10 years of probation and psychological monitoring. The court also awarded 100,000 euros ($A155,933.26) in damages to Mugnier's family.
The judge and jury in the Versailles court, west of Paris, heard Davies had suffered from psychological problems since her English father and French mother divorced acrimoniously when she was 14.
She took to drink and drugs and casual sex, scraped through school and university and failed to hold down any job for long. She also made several suicide attempts, once using the same knife she killed Mugnier with to slash her wrists and thighs.
Davies looked relaxed after the sentence was given, appearing to joke with her police minders.
She had told the court earlier: "I want to express the extent of my remorse. I take responsibility and accept the consequences of what I did".
She earlier told the court in Versailles she had blacked out and had no recollection of the killing except "the sensation of the knife going in".
"I do not even dare ask forgiveness from Olivier's family," she said on Tuesday, the second and last day of her trial.
"What I did terrifies me... I can guarantee that I will never again touch a drop of alcohol."
She told the court on Monday that she remembered telling the police who arrived at the murder scene "that I was a monster."
She said she no longer remembered making a statement the day of the murder in her flat in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in which she said: "I just wanted to cut him a little but the knife went in by itself".
The blood-stained kitchen knife with a six-inch blade that killed Mugnier was passed round for inspection by the three judges and the five women and four men of the jury.
Davies said she had begun the weekend that Mugnier died by sleeping with an ex-boyfriend on the Friday night.
She spent most of the Saturday drinking in a series of bars with friends before going alone to O'Sullivan's Irish pub near her home, where she met and began flirting with Mugnier.
They had several drinks and when the bar closed decided to go to Davies's place.
"I opened a bottle of wine. He rolled a joint... We started undressing, making love," she told the court.
"He couldn't have a proper erection - but that was understandable given how much we'd drunk. We stopped making love. He took off the condom."
The next thing she knew, Mugnier was lying bleeding from the neck on the bed, and she was trying to stem the blood with one hand and calling emergency services with the other.
Mugnier succumbed to two knife wounds, one of which proved fatal after it went right through his body and touched his spine.
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