POLITICS
Former prime minister in abuse of power case
KING-OUA LAOHONG
Attorney-General Chaikasem Nitisiri yesterday indicted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra for abusing his authority in favour of his telecommunications business, causing damage to the state worth 68 billion baht. Seksan Bangsomboon, the prosecution's director-general for special litigation, brought the indictment paper from Mr Chaikasem to the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions yesterday.
In the document, Mr Thaksin is accused of violating articles 91, 152 and 157 of the Criminal Code and articles 4, 100 and 122 of the counter corruption law.
Mr Thaksin, who was prime minister between Feb 9, 2001, and Sept 19, 2006, abused his authority in a way that benefited his own business but damaged the state, he said.
Mr Thaksin managed to have the Finance Ministry impose an excise tax on telecommunication businesses and deduct the tax from previous royalties paid by telecommunication concessionaires.
The concessionaires included Advanced Info Service Plc (AIS), in which his Shin Corp was the major shareholder.
The tax, which was as high as 49.5%, was criticised for barring new players from entering the telecommunications business.
The attorney-general agrees with the investigation by the Assets Scrutiny Committee (ASC), which found Mr Thaksin still held more than 1.41 billion shares in Shin Corp when he was prime minister.
He secretly held the shares through Ample Rich Investment Co and Win Mark Co. Both companies belonged to him and his shares were held by his children Panthongtae and Pinthongta, his sister Yingluck and his brother-in-law Bannapot Damapong, who acted as his proxies in the companies.
The introduction of the excise tax damaged state-owned TOT Plc and CAT Telecom Plc as they lost the rights to collect telecommunications royalties from their concessionaires.
TOT lost 41.9 billion baht and CAT Telecom lost 25.9 billion baht.
Supreme Court president Wirat Limwichai will call together Supreme Court judges to appoint a panel of nine Supreme Court judges to consider the case against Mr Thaksin. On Sept 3, the panel will decide if the court should accept the lawsuit for trial.
Thanapit Mulphruek, a spokesman for the Office of the Attorney-General (OAG), said the ASC had presented sufficient evidence against Mr Thaksin.
Meanwhile, the attorney-general rejected another case from the ASC that investigated corruption in the power supply network project at Suvarnabhumi airport.
Mr Thanapit said the attorney-general told the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC) that the ASC's investigation still contained gaps and the OAG and the NCCC, which took over corruption cases from the ASC, will form a joint committee to consider the case.
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