Thai Court strikes Thaksin again!

After his removal in a 2006 military coup, Thailand’s deposed Prime Minister and founder of the Thai Rak Thai Party, Thaksin Shinawatra had been blamed of allegedly arranging soft loans to Myanmar to secretly benefit his family’s telecoms business. Now apparently an army-appointed graft panel had accused Thaksin of ordering a state bank in 2004 to increase the size of a loan to the military-ruled former Burma to buy telecoms equipment from Shin Satellite company, then owned by his family. Though the erroneous deal had caused the bank a severe loss of approximately 670 million baht ($20 million), Thaksin had denied any such “rampant corrupt” dealings!

In the latest announcement that came a few days back, Thailand’s Supreme Court has agreed to hear the fourth case against Thaksin. Three others have been looming since 2003. The first hearing is set for September 16th, in which a major decision might come as a relief to the Thaksin Protestors who have been demanding justice for quite some time. The court’s decision is considered the latest blow to Thaksin’s bid to clear his name after a string of accusations from other parties.

Thaksin had been residing in, southeast of England, ever since his deployment in 2006. He returned to Thailand earlier this year after his political allies in the People’s Power Party set up a six-party coalition government. Now all his hopes lie with the judge ruling the court in his verdict, which seems exceedingly difficult.