The Bank of Thailand will file corruption charges against deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra after graft-busters found two fraudulent cases involving the deposed leader, a minister said yesterday.
Finance Minister Pridiyathorn Devakula said the central bank would bring the case to a criminal court.
Corruption busters appointed by the ruling junta late on Monday found Thaksin was involved in an alleged overpriced purchase of equipment at Bangkok's new Suvarnabhumi Airport and a controversial land deal in 2003.
The junta, which came to power after toppling the Thaksin government in a bloodless coup in September, justified the putsch by saying that rampant corruption during his five years in office had undermined democracy.
The army-installed government is investigating his family's business deals, including their January sale of Shin Corp shares to Singapore's Temasek Holdings.
Thaksin's family sold their 49 percent stake in Shin Corp, a telecom giant founded by the former prime minister, to the Singaporean state-linked investment firm for US$1.9 billion under a tax-free deal.
Thaksin's legal adviser, Noppadon Patama, said yesterday that his client is ready to return home to defend himself against any charges.
"Under the law, Thaksin must defend himself against any allegations and he is ready to come back because it's difficult to defend [oneself] while living overseas in exile," Noppadon said.
He said Thaksin was living in Beijing but declined to say when he could come back home.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet gave coup leaders 555 million baht (US$15.3 million) yesterday to run a "Peackeeping Command" whose job is to maintain political stability through intelligence and psychological operations, officials said.
The command, consisting of 13,625 staff from the military and police, has been tasked with working until a new government is installed after elections due in September.
Official said the aim was to prevent political turbulence that Thaksin's supporters might cause.
"We will monitor their movement, but discreetly, so that they won't feel uncomfortable or uneasy about being followed," said Colonel Sunsern Kaewkumnerd, spokesman for the junta's Council for National Security.
Sunsern said the intelligence staff would pay special attention to politicians in the north and northeast, Thaksin's stronghold.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
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MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
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