TELECOMS CORRUPTION
The Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions yesterday agreed to hear a case against former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is accused of abusing his power by changing tax and telecommunications policies to benefit his own business empire.
The charges, lodged by public prosecutors who took over the case from the now-defunct Assets Scrutiny Committee, involves a 2003 cabinet resolution which allowed an executive decree to be issued to force telecom businesses to pay excise instead of concession fees and allowed the firms to deduct excise from revenue sharing paid under their concessions.
The move is believed to have benefited Advanced Info Service (AIS), a mobile phone company under the umbrella of Shin Corp, founded by Mr Thaksin.
It is alleged that Mr Thaksin's move caused financial damage of 66 billion baht to TOT and CAT Telecom, two state agencies which hold telecom contracts.
A panel of nine judges chaired by Pornpech Wichitchonlachai found the case is within the court's jurisdiction and set the first hearing for Oct 15.
It is the fourth case brought against the former prime minister, who is in exile abroad with his family.
His wife, Khunying Potjaman, has already been convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to three years in jail.
The first case against Mr Thaksin and his wife, involving the Ratchadapisek land case, will be decided on Sept 17 by the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court judges will meet today to select a panel of nine judges to consider a civil lawsuit seeking the seizure of the assets of Mr Thaksin and his family.
The Office of the Attorney-General is seeking the confiscation of 76 billion baht in cash and assets on the grounds the assets were unlawfully acquired while Mr Thaksin was in office from 2001-2006.
The 76 billion baht is the estimated total return from the sale of Shin Corp to Singapore's Temasek.
The Administrative Court is scheduled to consider a petition on Sept 4 involving a request from the Revenue Department to the Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), which it asked to hand over 12 billion baht _ part of the frozen assets of the Shinawatras _ to settle a tax liability.
SCB submitted a petition to the Administrative Court on Aug 26 after the department instructed it to hand over the money in the names of Mr Thaksin's children _ Panthongtae and Pinthongta _ to settle a tax debt.
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