It is near final chapter of Thaksin's future : Surayud
Tokyo - Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said Tuesday that a graft probe into his ousted predecessor Thaksin Shinawatra could wrap up as soon as this month and was confident it would "pin him down."
Thai prosecutors last month charged Thaksin's wife with tax evasion and Tuesday threatened his children. But they have yet to charge Thaksin himself for graft, one of the main reasons the army gave for removing him in September."I can say that we are quite closing in on the final chapter of Mr Thaksin's future," Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont told a news conference in Tokyo. "We have all the evidence and I think the investigation ... will be able to pin him down this time," Surayud said. He said he told a senior justice ministry official that he needed the investigation to be finished "maybe by the end of April" but that he would not "violate the rule of law" in rushing the case. "We move maybe a little slowly," he said. "I don't want to rush because we will be blamed by the other people that we didn't take a close look at the investigation process." Surayud, who was in Tokyo to sign a free-trade agreement, acknowledged that last year's coup caused concern in Japan, the top investor in Thailand, but said the "peaceful military intervention" had been necessary. The coup's triggers were "the unprecedented consolidation of political and financial power by Mr Thaksin during his five years as prime minister, his alleged abuse of state power, widespread corruption, curtailment of media freedom and a disastrous human rights record," Surayud said. Thaksin's family in January 2006 sold its 49 per cent stake in telecom firm Shin Corp to Singapore's Temasek Holdings for 1.9 billion dollars. The deal was structured to avoid paying any taxes, sparking public protests against Thaksin, a self-made billionaire who has globetrotted since the coup. Agence France Presse
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