Ex Thai Prime Minister And Manchester City Owner Barred From Entering Britain

[sassienie]

Daily Mail 9th November 2008

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/...ng-Britain.html

Ousted Thai Prime Minister and former Manchester City owner Thaksin Shinawatra has been barred from entering the UK.

A memo to airlines by the British Embassy in Bangkok said the billionaire and his wife Pojaman were not allowed into Britain as their visas were no longer valid.

Shinawatra, who is believed to be in China, was sentenced in October to two years in prison in Thailand after being found guilty in his absence of corruption charges.

He had fled to the UK two months earlier with Pojaman, 51, who was charged but acquitted in the case. She was, however, sentenced in July to three years in jail for tax evasion.

A close aide said Shinawatra was ‘in Beijing on business’.

The move by the UK Border Agency to cancel the couple’s visas follows pressure from Bangkok prosecutors for Britain to extradite the 59-year-old.

The news was met with cheers from tens of thousands of protesters in Bangkok. It means the pair cannot return to their mansion in Weybridge, Surrey, or their house in Kensington, West London. They are now expected to seek refuge in China or Hong Kong.

The UK Border Agency’s memo, signed by Immigration Liaison Manager Andy Gray, told airlines they were ‘advised not to carry’ the couple to Britain. Members of the People’s Alliance for Democracy had previously demonstrated outside the British Embassy in Bangkok demanding Britain send Shinawatra home to face his jail sentence.

The disgraced businessman’s conviction was for breaking conflict-of-interest laws in a land deal in 2003, while he was still in office, in which his wife bought 16 acres of government-owned Bangkok land for £11million – a third of its market value.

The couple’s son and two daughters, who have no criminal convictions in Thailand, are still free to enter the UK.

Shinawatra, who made his fortune in telecommunications, fled to London in 2006 after a military coup in his home country. He bought Manchester City in June last year and is believed to have made a £20million profit when he sold the club to Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi in September. The club’s board will today discuss stripping the former owner of his honorary president title.

It will also debate whether it is appropriate that Shinawatra retains an interest in the club through a ten per cent stake held by his associates, Taweesuk Jack Srisumrid and Victor Restis, via their World Wide Investments firm.

[MKAsok]

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