Re: [情報] 泰國情勢不明 機考者請小心
美聯社消息：
Thai court rules on ex-leader Thaksin's wealth
By THANYARAT DOKSONE
Associated Press Writer
BANGKOK (AP) -- Thailand's Supreme Court ruled Friday that ousted
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra unlawfully concealed his assets
while in office and abused his power for personal gain, as it prepared
to issue a decision on whether his $2.29 billion fortune should be
seized.
The nine-judge panel, reading a lengthy verdict, said it had
unanimously agreed Thaksin and his ex-wife still held shares in Shin
Corp., a telecommunications giant he founded, while he was prime
minister.
Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 military coup for alleged corruption and
abuse of power.
The court also agreed that he had shaped government policies on mobile
phone regulations that profited the country's largest service
provider, also controlled by his family.
Legal experts have said that a ruling that Thaksin had hidden his
shares in Shin Corp. while in office would lead to a court decision
that government policies had benefited the company and constituted a
conflict of interest.
Tight security was in place around the courthouse, amid government
fears that Thaksin loyalists could react to the verdict with violence.
Whatever the decision, Thailand's four-year-long political turmoil is
expected to persist.
The Supreme Court is broadly applying mostly untested anti-corruption
statutes in determining whether Thaksin - a telecommunications tycoon
before entering politics - became "unusually wealthy" by abusing his
position at the head of government in 2001-2006.
They could order the confiscation of the $2.29 billion of his family's
assets frozen in Thai banks. Thaksin and an unknown portion of his
family's wealth are safely ensconced abroad.
Thaksin, who faces a two-year jail term in Thailand, was monitoring
the proceedings from exile in Dubai, where he was scheduled to provide
a running commentary via video link.
In an early decision favoring the prosecution, the judges dismissed
defense arguments that the process leading to the trial was
illegitimate.
The defense had argued that a special committee set up to investigate
Thaksin included appointees who were previously involved in the
popular movement to oust him. It also questioned whether the committee
had legal authority to bring the charges.
In a message on Twitter early Friday, Thaksin insisted all the money
he and has family accumulated was "with our own sweat, labor and
brains. We never cheated."
The government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva hopes Friday's
ruling will lead to a return of stability, but has ordered a security
crackdown around the country, claiming that the pro-Thaksin "Red
Shirt" movement may be planning violence.
"We hope for the best," said government spokesman Panitan
Wattanayagorn. "Of course many people fear for the worst but we are
ready to manage whatever comes."
The judges will look at whether Thaksin illegally parked his fortune
with family members because he was not allowed to hold company shares
while prime minister, and whether his administration implemented
policies to benefit his family's businesses, an offense that has been
termed "policy corruption."
Issues include whether telecoms liberalization measures unfairly
benefited the country's main mobile phone service provider, then
controlled by Thaksin's family; and whether he unfairly promoted a
US$127 million low-interest loan to neighboring Myanmar to benefit a
satellite communications company also controlled by his family.
Thaksin's critics would see a guilty verdict as the culmination of a
process to cleanse Thai politics that began with protests in 2006
calling for his ouster for alleged corruption that segued into a
military coup in September that year. They also accuse him of
disrespecting the country's constitutional monarch, 82-year-old King
Bhumibol Adulyadej.
His supporters would see such a ruling as the latest in a series of
injustices that drove a democratically elected leader from office
despite two sweeping election victories. They believe he is being
persecuted because the traditional urban ruling class felt threatened
when he empowered the country's rural majority, which was grateful for
Thaksin's innovative social welfare programs.
The passions held by the two sides led to the occupation of the seat
of government for several months and the seizure of the capital's two
airports for a week by Thaksin's opponents in 2008, and rioting and
disruption of a conference of Asian heads of government by his
supporters last year.
His Red Shirt supporters continue to rally on his behalf and have
promised a "million-man" march next month.
Thaksin, who fled into exile ahead of a 2008 conviction on a conflict
of interest charge, rallies his followers by video and over the
Internet.
His opponents accuse him of funding the Red Shirt movement to topple
the government, and hope that seizing his assets will starve the
movement.
But at least one analyst says the anti-government movement will not
simply fade away, even if Thaksin's cash dries up.
"It would not put an end to Thailand's crisis because now Thaksin's
supporters, the Red Shirts - the United Front for Democracy Against
Dictatorship - they have evolved into their own force to be reckoned
with," says Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist from
Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.
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※ 編輯: cassine 來自: 218.166.183.25 (02/26 20:10)
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