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BANGKOK: A Thai criminal court approved on Monday a second arrest
warrant for ousted and exiled premier Thaksin Shinawatra and his
wife over corruption charges stemming from a controversial share
sale.
“The court approved an arrest warrant” for
Thaksin and his wife Pojaman, said Pornchai Asavawattanaporn, the
deputy chief of the Justice Ministry’s Department of Special
Investigations (DSI).
The DSI is investigating the former first
couple’s alleged fraudulent filings to the Securities and Exchange
Commission over a 2003 listing of a property company owned by
Thaksin’s family.
It said the arrest warrant was issued as the
couple repeatedly failed to appear in Bangkok to hear fraud charges.
They currently live in Britain, where Thaksin has bought the
Manchester City football club.
Thaksin and Pojaman were already slapped with
arrest warrants by the Supreme Court in August over separate graft
charges over a real-estate deal in 2003.
The Supreme Court is set to consider on
September 25 whether extradition proceedings should begin in that
case.
In the land controversy, Thaksin is accused of
illegally influencing the deal to allow his wife to buy prime
Bangkok real estate from a government agency for the bargain price
of 772 million baht ($22 million), about one-third its estimated
value.
The couple have been placed on an immigration
blacklist, meaning that they can be immediately arrested if they try
to enter Thailand.
--AFP
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