Deposed Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra pleaded not guilty yesterday to corruption charges, in the first case assembled by military-backed investigators to reach court.
Thaksin said little during the 20-minute hearing before the Supreme Court, which was packed with hundreds of his supporters who filled the courtroom and spilled out onto the steps outside.
After a judge read out the charges, accusing Thaksin of using his political influence to win his wife a sweetheart property deal, he was asked if he pleaded not guilty.
Thaksin simply replied: "Yes."
The court also said that Thaksin would not have to attend every hearing in his trial.
The billionaire had requested that the trial proceed in his absence so that he could travel overseas to tend to his investments, particularly the English Premier League club Manchester City, which he bought last year.
Thaksin has already been granted court permission to travel to Britain for a month and is expected to leave Thailand later in the week.
Thaksin's arraignment came less than two weeks after his jubilant return to Thailand, ending nearly 18 months in self-imposed exile following the 2006 military-backed coup against him.
"Today we have denied all charges," his lawyer Pichit Cheunban said. "We are confident that we can answer all questions and defend against any accusations by the prosecutors."
Pichit said Thaksin requested permission not to attend every hearing so that his travel plans would not hold up the case.
"Sometimes Thaksin will be busy and unable to attend the hearings. So we asked for the trial to begin in his absence so that the proceedings will not be held up," Pichit said.
Wearing a black suit with a white shirt, Thaksin did not talk to reporters as he left the court, but greeted the hundreds of supporters who waited outside to cheer him.
Thaksin and his wife each face up to 13 years in prison over two graft charges alleging she used his political influence to buy prime Bangkok property in 2003 from a government agency at about one-third of its estimated value.
No charges have been filed over blockbuster scandals like his family's tax-free sale of his telecom giant Shin Corp, although US$2 billion in suspected profits from the deal have been frozen pending a close to the investigation.
Since Thaksin's allies swept back into power in elections late last year, doubts have grown over how successful prosecutors will be in pursuing him.
Also See: Thaksin tells Thailand to cut rates, boost spending
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
Three sisters from Ohio who inherited a dime kept in a bank vault for more than 40 years knew it had some value, but they had no idea just how much until just a few years ago. The extraordinarily rare coin, struck by the US Mint in San Francisco in 1975, could bring more than US$500,000, said Ian Russell, president of GreatCollections, which specializes in currency and is handling an online auction that ends next month. What makes the dime depicting former US president Franklin D. Roosevelt so valuable is a missing “S” mint mark for San Francisco, one of just two
RSS