PM sues for Bt1 bn over 'Finland Plot' remarks
Caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will sue media tycoon Sondhi Limthongkul and 11 others, seeking Bt1 billion in compensation for allegedly damaging his and the Thai Rak Thai Party's reputations over the so-called "Finland Plot".
Thana Benjathikul, a lawyer for Thaksin, said he would file the suit with the Civil Court at 10am today. Two of the other co-defendants were outgoing Bangkok senator Chirmsak Pinthong and Pramote Nakhonthap, an academic. The three allegedly said at a seminar that during a vacation in Finland, Thaksin and core TRT members drafted a "plot" to seize absolute power in Thailand. The Thammasat University seminar was aired on ASTV satellite TV run by Thai Day Dot Com, a subsidiary of Manager Media Group. Thana said the suit would name 12 defendants, both individuals and legal entities. The other defendants were Thai Day Dot Com Co Ltd, the management of Manager Media Group Plc and CAT Telecom Plc. Thana said CAT would be sued because it let ASTV use its satellite transponder and mobile broadcast unit to link the seminar to a satellite ASTV uses for broadcasting. Thana said although CAT decided that ASTV had illegally operated a TV broadcast business, it failed to retrieve equipment loaned to ASTV and had allowed the equipment to be used to attack Thaksin and TRT.
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