The Thaksins have left the building!

[BAM]

(stogie bear @ Aug. 11 2008,13:04) confirmed Monday that former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife, Khunying Pojaman, had reached England Sunday night.

Pojaman is looking for a place to crash for the night... can she use your flat Stogie?

[Snick]

They'll be gone for a long time, Thaksin will only be allowed back when he is an old man and not capable of being a player anymore -- Thats my prediction.

Now the fun begins, to see if PPP can survive without the puppet-master.

[donnnnnny]

fucking amazing that he can fly out of the country on a fake passport and no one blinks an eyelid!!!!!! maybe im just nieve

[Snick]

(donnnnnny @ Aug. 11 2008,17:58) fucking amazing that he  can fly out of the country on a fake passport and no one blinks an eyelid!!!!!! maybe im just nieve

That's not what happened.

Roughly the story is, Thaksin (and his wife) as a person under investigation had to surrender his passport. He was allowed to ask permission to leave the country, and the courts decided on a case by case basis. For two months the courts did not allow him to leave. Then they found his wife guilty, and did allow the Thaksins to travel to China on the condition they return by the 11th to attend a separate court case involving them (a shady land deal).

It pretty obvious that the powers-that-be were giving Thaksin the opportunity to seek asylum, and that's what he did (after previous denials).

Now they can find him guilty in absentia, his defense will be weakened, he is a felon (for skipping bail), and its easier to seize his assets.

[terryw]

Looks like the UK immigration authorities will have to deal with another family of asylum seekers.

[Guest]

Report from the Premier Leagues website regarding the Manchester City Situation

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore has insisted he would invoke the 'fit and proper persons test' if he had to.
The controversial rule regarding club owners has come under scrutiny over the last couple of days following the decision of Manchester City owner Thaksin Shinawatra to avoid charges in Thailand by flying to England, where it is thought he will seek asylum.
Thaksin is facing a series of corruption and fraud charges, while his wife Pojaman is currently on bail after being handed a three-year prison sentence for fraud.
The Premier League have tended to rely on advice from the Home Office and Foreign Office in such matters and clearly on such a sensitive issue, will do so again.
However, should Thaksin, or any other club owner for that matter, transgress the rules, Scudamore has warned he will not be scared to act.
''Of course, if we feel the rule has been breached, we will invoke it," he said.
"We will not turn a blind eye to issues of a serious nature.
"It is quite a complex matter and we can't just make a judgement on the spot but clearly we have a club owner who has not yet been found guilty of any offence.
"However, it is an evolving situation and we will look at it.
"As always, we will take advice from the Home Office and the Foreign Office. We are not experts in law in every country, so it is wise to speak with the people who are."
When the People's Power Party, supposedly sympathetic to Thaksin, took charge of a coalition government in last autumn's Thai elections, it appeared only a matter of time before he received the £800million in assets from his country's military rulers.
However, their influence does not appear to spread to the judiciary, who last month sentenced Pojaman, and her brother, to three-year prison terms for tax evasion.
That Pojaman was released on bail, the terms of which have been broken by today's development, merely adds to the complexity of the case and to the headaches of the Premier League.
But for City it is bad news as the funds fans thought would be forthcoming for new players will now, almost certainly, not be available.
It has already been suggested many of the deals done by Sven-Goran Eriksson last summer were done with a relatively small down-payment, the same applying to transfers of Jo and Tal Ben Haim this summer.
Although Eriksson's successor Mark Hughes managed to halt Vedran Corluka's proposed move to Tottenham at the weekend, his rebuilding plans have been badly affected ahead of next Sunday's opening Premier League game at Aston Villa.
"Thaksin will be making no statements in London while the judicial process remains active and he is not going to get involved in conversations about Manchester City," confirmed a City source this lunchtime.
Before his departure from China, Thaksin outlined his own version of the charges levelled against him, which he remains convinced are politically motivated.
"What has happened to me and my family and my close relations has resulted from efforts to get rid of me from politics," he said.
"These are my political enemies. They don't care about the rule of law, facts or internationally recognised due process."
Thaksin has vowed to return to Thailand one day but it is difficult to see such a scenario arising in the near future.

[Guest]

He and his whole corrupt family will only return if the PPP or another of his future proxy parties can get rid of those pesky judges that keep finding his family guilty of things. It's just not right to be persecuted for being corrupt.Everybody else in Thai history has gotten away with anything they like and now finally the judiciary has been given the teeth to really do something about it.
Thaksins mob just happen to have been involved in most of the illegal dealings recently.I only hope that the future cases find him guilty and that the only time he ever gets to come back to Thailand is in an urn.
Hopefully the U.K. will expel him to Uganda as it would be a continuing embarassment to let a fugitive from the law reside in the U.K.
Oh sorry! I forgot about all those fundamentalist Islamic asylum seekers residing in the U.K..He will be in good company.
Maybe now Thai politics can get away from the influence of the 'invisible hand".

[jaymee]

Mmm I'm not too sure of thai politcs but is this due to the King not liking Thaksin?

[srb]

London paper today had an almost quarter page picture of him taking a stroll in Guildford with his wife and kids, along with a Q&A column in the business section - 'Thai On The Run' (first question/answer - Who's this Thai tycoon who's fled to London with his missus?)

[kathylc]

Yesterday was the first that it has been on the news in my area. They made it sound like it all just happened over this past weekend. I can just see all the folks that watch the local and national news here asking themselves what I asked my self back when this thread started.......who or what is a thaksin

[srb]

(kathylc @ Aug. 13 2008,09:03) who or what is a thaksin

hehe