'Decision on Thaksin's testimony up to court'
The government will not intervene in the Constitution Tribunal's deliberations if deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra returns to the country to testify in the party-dissolution case, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said yesterday.
"The court has full authority to decide on the case," he said. "The government, as the administrative branch, has no power over it." Surayud said the judges were welcome to discuss the issue with him, though he would not tell them what to do. Council for National Security (CNS) chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin said on Thursday that Thaksin should be the last witness to be called in the case if he had to return to the country to testify, because the country had to be put in order first. Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai Party has listed him as its first witness to testify in the trial for alleged electoral fraud. A government source said Thaksin was playing the return card only to shake the stability of the CNS and the government, adding that he did not have any plans to return to the country as he feared being prosecuted and arrested. The Thai Rak Thai's chief defence lawyer Pongthep Thepkanchana insisted yesterday that Thaksin was the best person to defend the innocence of the party, as he had been the Thai Rak Thai leader when the party was charged with electoral fraud.
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