August 26, 2008	Tuesday	Sha’aban 23, 1429

BANGKOK, Aug 25: Thai prosecutors on Monday asked the Supreme Court to decide whether $2.2 billion belonging to ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra’s family could be seized by the state.About 94 boxes of evidence arrived at the Bangkok courthouse by truck, all aiming to prove that the entrepreneur-turned-politician was “unusually rich,” as alleged by a corruption panel tasked with investigating the fallen leader.

“We have come to ask the court to issue an order to confiscate this wealth,” said Sakesan Bangsomboon, director general of the special litigation division in the attorney general’s office.

The supreme court will now form a team of judges to decide whether they will take the case. No time frame was given.

An anti-graft panel in 2007 froze 76 billion baht ($2.2 billion) in Thai bank accounts belonging to Thaksin and members of his family as part of corruption investigations into the tycoon, who was toppled in a 2006 coup.

Thaksin and his wife Pojaman skipped bail and fled to Britain on August 11 to dodge the slate of corruption charges mounting against them, but the cases are continuing in their absence.

Also on Monday, Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) asked an administrative court to rule on whether it was duty bound to comply with a government request to hand over a portion of the 76 billion baht.

The Revenue Department is seeking about 10 billion baht in what it says is unpaid taxes by two of Thaksin’s three children, but SCB says this contradicts the anti-graft panel’s June 2007 order to freeze the funds.

“The bank finds it impossible to comply with both orders which are conflicting in practice,” the statement said.

Thaksin and Pojaman’s three children are also now living in Britain, where Thaksin owns a home.

The 76 billion baht that prosecutors are seeking to seize represents most of the profits Thaksin’s family earned when they sold his Shin Corp telecom empire in 2006 to Singapore’s state-linked investment firm Temasek Holdings.

The tax-free sale of Shin Corp sparked a public uproar, bringing tens of thousands of people into the streets in protest. The build-up of unrest eventually led to the coup against Thaksin.

He fled to Britain — where he owns the Premier League club Manchester City — claiming that he could not receive a fair trial in Thailand and that he feared for his family’s safety.—AFP