June 12, 2007	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 26, 1428

BANGKOK, June 11: An anti-corruption panel ordered more than $1.6 billion in assets belonging to ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife to be frozen on Monday pending court rulings on whether it was illicitly obtained.

The Assets Examination Committee, set up after Thaksin was deposed in a bloodless coup last September, said money in bank accounts and other financial assets belonging to the couple could later be seized if they are found to have been gained illegally.“The committee found evidence that Thaksin during his time as prime minister committed corruption and illegal acts,” it said in a statement.

The committee’s order is a major new blow for Thaksin, who was deposed amid allegations of corruption and abuse of power.

Forbes magazine, in a listing last July of Thailand’s richest people, put Thaksin and his family in fourth place with an estimated fortune of $2.2 billion.

Earlier this year, Thaksin made a reported $212 million takeover bid for the English Premier League Manchester City soccer team.

Thaksin’s lawyer and de facto spokesman in Thailand, Noppadol Pattama, said the former prime minister “feels that he and his wife have been unfairly and illegally treated by the AEC, and will fight and defend his innocence by bringing legal action in criminal and civil cases claiming compensation for loss of opportunity”.

He described the committee’s actions, which take effect immediately, as “just another political decision to persecute the former prime minister”.

Thaksin was abroad at the time of the coup, and has not returned since. He has heeded the warnings of the military that he was not welcome until after a general election planned for December, because of fears he would destabilise the political situation.

Thaksin, who was prime minister from 2001 to 2006, made his fortune in telecommunications, largely from a government-granted mobile phone operating concession. He used some of the money to start a new party, Thai Rak Thai, as a springboard to the nation’s leadership.

Last month, the military-appointed Constitutional Tribunal dissolved the party and barred its top 111 leaders from public office for five years.—AP