Fugitive Thaksin Shinawatra gets another arrest warrant in telecom excise tax case

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Fugitive Thaksin Shinawatra gets another arrest warrant in telecom excise tax case

By Thai PBS

 

 

The Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Persons Holding Political Positions today (Mar 6) issued another warrant for the arrest of ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra after he failed to appear to defend himself in a corruption case involving a telecom concession.

 

In this case, Thaksin was indicted of corruption over the conversion of revenue-sharing telecom concession to excise tax that inflicted over 66 billion baht loss to the state in 2008.

 

The Supreme Court scheduled today as the first hearing of the case brought against Thaksin by the Office of the Attorney-General (OAG)  after it was discarded of by the court for a decade after the defendant failed to appear in the court.

 

Full story: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/fugitive-thaksin-shinawatra-gets-another-arrest-warrant-telecom-excise-tax-case/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2018-03-06

[Golden Triangle]

Why are these morons even bothering themselves with this - No persecution then, or does it make them feel good.

 

Shakes head in disbelief and moves on to something more interesting.

[darksidedog]

You have to ask yourself why on earth would they bother issuing an arrest warrant that they have absolutely zero chance of ever serving?

And the fact this is day one in a ten year old case makes it even more stupid.

[colinneil]

WE will show that Thaksin, here is another arrest warrant for you, poor ole Thaksin is quaking in his shoes.

[robblok]

Just now, Golden Triangle said:

Why are these morons even bothering themselves with this - No persecution then, or does it make them feel good.

 

Shakes head in disbelief and moves on to something more interesting.

Why because the guy was corrupt and not a little bit either. Now they are trying to move the big corruption cases of Thaksin forward so the world can see the guy is not as innocent as he pretends to be. Before he could say I am only convicted for a land deal and it was nothing.. now if a few of those bigger corruption cases are done he will be shown for the corrupt criminal he is.

 

The stupid thing was that before political criminals like Thaksin could wait out corruption scandals but now they can't anymore the cases will go on with or without them. 

 

I can only applaud this to show the world what this guy was just an other crook. 

[bluesofa]

2 minutes ago, Golden Triangle said:

Why are these morons even bothering themselves with this - No persecution then, or does it make them feel good.

 

Shakes head in disbelief and moves on to something more interesting.

Perhaps that should be: Shakes head in disbelief and moves on to something more interesting less boring.

[robblok]

1 minute ago, darksidedog said:

You have to ask yourself why on earth would they bother issuing an arrest warrant that they have absolutely zero chance of ever serving?

And the fact this is day one in a ten year old case makes it even more stupid.

Why procedure.. so he won't get off on a technicality. 

[smedly]

2 minutes ago, Golden Triangle said:

Why are these morons even bothering themselves with this - No persecution then, or does it make them feel good.

 

Shakes head in disbelief and moves on to something more interesting.

just maybe he was a crook, what happens to crooks

 

They can now pursue all these cases against Thaksin, if he doesn't want to appear and defend himself ....................... up to him

[PREM-R]

6 minutes ago, robblok said:

Why because the guy was corrupt and not a little bit either. Now they are trying to move the big corruption cases of Thaksin forward so the world can see the guy is not as innocent as he pretends to be. Before he could say I am only convicted for a land deal and it was nothing.. now if a few of those bigger corruption cases are done he will be shown for the corrupt criminal he is.

 

The stupid thing was that before political criminals like Thaksin could wait out corruption scandals but now they can't anymore the cases will go on with or without them. 

 

I can only applaud this to show the world what this guy was just an other crook. 

So Rob, do you expect the Thai officials to ask for the issue of a Red Interpol notice for Thaksin?

[robblok]

Just now, PREM-R said:

So Rob, do you expect the Thai officials to ask for the issue of a Red Interpol notice for Thaksin?

I don't know maybe after these cases are settled and a bit more weight is behind the charges. Could also be they leave him be. But it would be good for the world to know that the guy is a crook. Now he can still play like he is persecuted. That becomes a lot harder if he is linked and convicted for huge corruption cases. This can change the perception people have of him it would make it hard for reuters to keep being so favorable about him.

 

But if your asking if i think if Thaksin will ever do time for this.. I don't he will just stay out of reach, I am also not 100% sure they really want him back. But it would at least dent his image and make it harder for people to support him given his crimes then.

Even here on the site there are still those that deny that the guy was a corrupt crook. That gets a lot harder once its proven in court. It would also be nice to see the scope of his crime.. i mean here 66 billion makes the 34 billion in the rice program look small. I wonder how many more cases and how much more money we are talking about. 

[Golden Triangle]

He is no more of a crook than anyone else that has held office in this country, but this is politically motivated persecution, the junta who have absolutely no authority to be in power apart from there guns & tanks are plundering the coffers as I type.

 

Yep, Thaksin had his faults, he wasn't squeaky clean,  but he united this country to a certain degree, which is more than the junta can claim. I don't disagree with any of your assessments of him or his sister, but could any of you look me in the eye and honestly claim that this further court case is not politically motivated ?

 

I just find it incredulous that after 10 years they want to proceed to a court case, costing exactly how much ? with the end result of finding him guilty, levying a huge fine that will never be paid and handing down a further prison term that will never be served. The whole charade is pathetic. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

My bottom line here is -- whether Thaksin or anyone else, they ought not be able to escape prosecution merely by fleeing out of the country.

 

The government finally fixed that loophole for politicians -- all politicians -- even though they didn't make the same change for regular citizens.

 

The main thing wrong here, is Thaksin was able to avoid prosecution on all these cases for a decade. Thankfully, better late than never, his past crimes may finally see their day in court.

 

[shady86]

They have nothing to do so trying to show they are doing something.

[PREM-R]

2 minutes ago, robblok said:

I don't know maybe after these cases are settled and a bit more weight is behind the charges. Could also be they leave him be. But it would be good for the world to know that the guy is a crook. Now he can still play like he is persecuted. That becomes a lot harder if he is linked and convicted for huge corruption cases. This can change the perception people have of him it would make it hard for reuters to keep being so favorable about him.

 

But if your asking if i think if Thaksin will ever do time for this.. I don't he will just stay out of reach, I am also not 100% sure they really want him back. But it would at least dent his image and make it harder for people to support him given his crimes then.

Even here on the site there are still those that deny that the guy was a corrupt crook. That gets a lot harder once its proven in court. It would also be nice to see the scope of his crime.. i mean here 66 billion makes the 34 billion in the rice program look small. I wonder how many more cases and how much more money we are talking about. 

The thing is Rob, the very people who are reviving these old cases are the same people who have always hated Thaksin.   The voters would have him back, as PM, at any free and fair election in Thailand, if he were allowed to stand and the parliament wasn't pre-loaded with army personnel.

[Samui Bodoh]

Blah Blah Blah

 

Former Prime Ministers aren't extradited to coup leaders or coup governments.

 

End of story.

[The Old Bull]

If you judge Thai politicians by western standards they are all crooks. What Taksin did and cannot be forgiven for is politicizing the poor.

[johng]

 
The government finally fixed that loophole for politicians -- all politicians -- even though they didn't make the same change for regular citizens.

Except politicians that are also "democratic soldiers" or have lots of expensive watches.

[robblok]

4 minutes ago, PREM-R said:

The thing is Rob, the very people who are reviving these old cases are the same people who have always hated Thaksin.   The voters would have him back, as PM, at any free and fair election in Thailand, if he were allowed to stand and the parliament wasn't pre-loaded with army personnel.

The thing is it does not matter if they hate him or not.. if he is guilty of such huge corruption he should never ever be allowed to be voted in and preferably he should be in jail. Popularity does not make people innocent. 

 

I guess you and i differ about this i feel corrupt criminals should be in jail.. not in government. (goes for the likes of Prawit and others too)

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

3 minutes ago, johng said:

 

Except politicians that are also "democratic soldiers" or have lots of expensive watches.

 

 

Who gets prosecuted and who doesn't is a legitimate subject for debate.

 

But regardless of the answer to that question, fleeing the country to escape criminal prosecution shouldn't be, and now isn't, a get out of jail free card for politicians, no matter their political party affiliation.

 

Edited March 6, 2018 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[Odysseus123]

Goodness gracious me....he's..he's back in the News again?

 

He also stole my Matchbox car set but I have never,ever,told anyone about this before.

 

No-one on planet Earth takes this "democratic" military farce seriously.

[CGW]

55 minutes ago, robblok said:

Why because the guy was corrupt and not a little bit either. Now they are trying to move the big corruption cases of Thaksin forward so the world can see the guy is not as innocent as he pretends to be. Before he could say I am only convicted for a land deal and it was nothing.. now if a few of those bigger corruption cases are done he will be shown for the corrupt criminal he is.

 

The stupid thing was that before political criminals like Thaksin could wait out corruption scandals but now they can't anymore the cases will go on with or without them. 

 

I can only applaud this to show the world what this guy was just an other crook. 

I can agree with your thought process, then reality kicks in - the people who are issuing the warrants are just as, if not more corrupt than Thacksin! It puts a small dint in the case you are pleading sir!

[Kieran00001]

How have they calculated this?  The family each sold their shares individually, 

43 minutes ago, robblok said:

I don't know maybe after these cases are settled and a bit more weight is behind the charges. Could also be they leave him be. But it would be good for the world to know that the guy is a crook. Now he can still play like he is persecuted. That becomes a lot harder if he is linked and convicted for huge corruption cases. This can change the perception people have of him it would make it hard for reuters to keep being so favorable about him.

 

But if your asking if i think if Thaksin will ever do time for this.. I don't he will just stay out of reach, I am also not 100% sure they really want him back. But it would at least dent his image and make it harder for people to support him given his crimes then.

Even here on the site there are still those that deny that the guy was a corrupt crook. That gets a lot harder once its proven in court. It would also be nice to see the scope of his crime.. i mean here 66 billion makes the 34 billion in the rice program look small. I wonder how many more cases and how much more money we are talking about. 

 

You should ask just how they have calculated this 66 billion loss considering he only netted 71 billion out of the entire sale, it just doesn't add up.

[Kieran00001]

35 minutes ago, The Old Bull said:

If you judge Thai politicians by western standards they are all crooks. What Taksin did and cannot be forgiven for is politicizing the poor.

 

Politicising people is not a crime it is a duty and the poor people in Thailan need to be politicised further, they are largely unrepresented pawns of the rich, the poor need to have a voice as much as anyone, I find your comments unforgivably mean.

 

[robblok]

5 minutes ago, Kieran00001 said:

How have they calculated this?  The family each sold their shares individually, 

 

You should ask just how they have calculated this 66 billion loss considering he only netted 71 billion out of the entire sale, it just doesn't add up.

Loss to the state does not equal what he got, but your right interesting question. But even if it was half of that it is still on par with the rice scam corruption. So by all means its not peanuts. 

[robblok]

7 minutes ago, CGW said:

I can agree with your thought process, then reality kicks in - the people who are issuing the warrants are just as, if not more corrupt than Thacksin! It puts a small dint in the case you are pleading sir!

Just means there are more corrupt Thai officials to send to jail, does not mean that someone who was corrupt should get off free. 

 

 

[KiChakayan]

1 hour ago, robblok said:

Why because the guy was corrupt and not a little bit either. Now they are trying to move the big corruption cases of Thaksin forward so the world can see the guy is not as innocent as he pretends to be. Before he could say I am only convicted for a land deal and it was nothing.. now if a few of those bigger corruption cases are done he will be shown for the corrupt criminal he is.

 

The stupid thing was that before political criminals like Thaksin could wait out corruption scandals but now they can't anymore the cases will go on with or without them. 

 

I can only applaud this to show the world what this guy was just an other crook. 

You gotta be joking, how could anyone in the world believe anything coming from a totally illegitimate government, of a country where independent justice is a thing of the past, if it ever existed. Laughable!

 

Edited March 6, 2018 by KiChakayan

[Odysseus123]

Just now, KiChakayan said:

You gotta be joking would anyone in the world believe anything coming from a totally illegitimate government, of a country where independent justice is a thing of the past, if it ever existed. Laughable!

 

True...but the poor chap does do his best to introduce (yet again and again and again) some elements of comedy to our chats.

[AGareth2]

waste of tax payers money

[Kieran00001]

3 minutes ago, robblok said:

Loss to the state does not equal what he got, but your right interesting question. But even if it was half of that it is still on par with the rice scam corruption. So by all means its not peanuts. 

 

Certainly not peanuts.  They used a legal loophole when they sold their corporation, if they had sold it off as one corp then they had to pay capital gains but by each family member selling individually that tax was not applicable, they've been moaning about it for a long time but the fact is that was the law at the time.

[Kieran00001]

9 minutes ago, robblok said:

Just means there are more corrupt Thai officials to send to jail, does not mean that someone who was corrupt should get off free. 

 

 

 

It should raise the question as to whether you can trust their charge.