Thaksin acquitted in wealth case

By Amit Baruah

SINGAPORE, AUG. 3. The Prime Minister of Thailand, Mr. Thaksin Shinawatra, was acquitted on the charge of wrongful declaration of assets by the country's Constitutional Court this afternoon in Bangkok.

Mr. Thaksin, a billionaire telecom tycoon, survived as Prime Minister by the slimmest of margins - with eight judges voting to acquit him and another seven ruling against him in the 15-member court. As had been expected, the announcement that the verdict would be pronounced today came only this morning. The court had earlier stated that once all the opinions were in, the judgment would be announced.

Had he been convicted, Mr. Thaksin would have had to resign as Prime Minister and would have been barred from holding public office for a five-year period.

One of the judges, Mr. Kramol Thongdamachart, said after the verdict that the panel voted eight-seven in Mr. Thaksin's favour. ``Mr. Thaksin is going to be the Prime Minister,'' he said.

Another judge, Mr. Mongkol Saratan, who voted against Mr. Thaksin, was quoted as saying: ``We made our judgment in accordance with the evidence and facts we have. I congratulate the Prime Minister even though I am in a minority.''

The Prime Minister, who spent an anxious afternoon in office awaiting the judgment, is now free to get on with the job of governance after having been swept to power following a landslide victory in the January general elections.

Mr. Thaksin was indicted by Thailand's National Counter- Corruption Commission (NCCC) in December 2000, shortly before the elections, and the case went before the Constitutional Court.

On December 26, 2000, Mr. Ophars Arunin, the NCCC Chairman, said in a statement: ``(Mr.) Thaksin deliberately submitted his asset and debt statements with false information or concealed some information.''

For his part, the Prime Minister has repeatedly denied that he withheld or supplied wrong information in his assets statement. Addressing the Constitutional Court in the form of a closing statement on June 18, Mr. Thaksin declared that he had ``erred in good faith''.

``Once notified of the shortcomings in the asset statements, I submitted additional information to the NCCC right away,'' he maintained. ``The errors can be attributed to oversight - not intention to hide my wealth... it was never my intention to conceal my wealth,'' Mr. Thaksin said in his closing statement.

The prosecution, however, claimed that Mr. Thaksin's domestic servants held shares worth one million Thai bahts in his companies, but no money actually changed hands in the share transfers. ``(Mr.) Thaksin did not tell the truth when he claimed they (he and his wife) did not try to conceal the share transactions,'' the prosecution had claimed.

``The NCCC seeks the court's verdict against (Mr.) Thaksin because of clear-cut evidence that he intentionally tried to conceal his wealth,'' the prosecution alleged.

Today's verdict, which is final, will take away any excuse from Mr. Thaksin and his Government that they were distracted or could not push ahead with the task of governance on account of an impending judicial pronouncement.

The Prime Minister, who made a number of populist promises in his election campaign, will now be under pressure to deliver.

While his personal acumen has led to the establishment of a large business empire, ordinary Thais hope that this would transfer to the running of the country and the economy. For South-East Asia as a whole, the verdict puts at rest speculation about yet another change at the top in the region following the ouster of Mr. Joseph Estrada in the Philippines and Mr. Abdurrahman Wahid in Indonesia in January and July this year.

Given the not-so-encouraging economic climate in the region, looking at the issue from a business point of view, the verdict is a blow for political stability in a key South-East Asian nation.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : Real IRA behind sabotage?
Next     : Khatami-Khamenei rift widening?