Arrest warrant for ex-PM Thaksin 'normal court procedure': PM

BANGKOK, Oct 13 - Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Friday said the arrest warrant for former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, her elder brother, was a normal court procedure.

She said the case would proceed and witnesses will be called to give statements to the court. Mr Thaksin did not appear at the court as requested, so an arrest warrant was issued.

The Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for Mr Thaksin, Ms Yingluck’s elder brother, on malfeasance charges involving Bt9.9 billion (more than US$300 million) in non-performing loans issued by state-owned Krung Thai Bank (KTB).

A bench of nine judges chaired by Chaisit Trachutham, chairman of the court's election cases division clarified the charges to 26 defendants, including former KTB president Viroj Nualkair.

All of the defendants except Mr Thaksin appeared before the court to hear the charges.

The court, therefore, issued an arrest warrant for Mr Thaksin and suspended the suit against him from the case list, pending his arrest.

The court reasoned that Mr Thaksin was informed of the scheduled hearing but failed to appear, so it was suspected that he was fleeing the trial.

All 26 defendants denied the charges, but the court nonetheless set January 25 next year at 9am to begin examination of evidence. All defendants were told to submit the names of their witnesses 14 days before the appointment date.

In this case, the Office of the Attorney-General filed malfeasance charges against Mr Thaksin, the first defendant in the case, and 26 others, including the former KTB president.

Mr Thaksin was charged with allowing the state-owned bank to grant a large amount of loans when he was premier to three subsidiaries of debt-ridden Krisdamahanakorn real estate company in 2008.

Krisdamahanakorn PLC was then classified as a non-performing debtor of the bank and was not eligible for any further loans. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2012-10-13

So he is coming home

and I am sure she will call her brother and demand he return to Thailand immediately

Wouldn't "normal court procedure" require the government to act on it? I don't mean sack the judges

Well well... she's racking up the awards while big Bro is racking up the warrants !

Normal court procedure yes, but after that nothing is normal.

So he is coming home

Kidding, he is scared shixless

Yes, normal for the court, of course his actions are not normal,

but she conveniently glosses over that point.

Yet one more arrest warrant for him from one more court of law in Thailand.

He could probably paper over his whole bathroom with the paperwork just

for warrents for his stalled court dates awaiting his presence.

How embarrassing possibly an unprecedented situation for a PM, it is all starting to come back and bite him in the ass ...........

if they are serious about issuing an ARREST WARRANT, then they should turn it over to INTERPOL.

I fail to see the point of her statement, in some crude warped way is she trying to say everything is fine and belittle the court, fact is that her brother is a criminal and all is clearly not fine

if they are serious about issuing an ARREST WARRANT, then they should turn it over to INTERPOL.

Who will merely file the report after circulating copies to all of its members. Whether a member acts on the warrant is an entirely different matter. Interpol has no powers of arrest or areas of jurisdiction. Interpol is not much more than a post office that has the facilities to collect, assimilate and circulate information.

Poor Yingluck ... how embarrassing for her.

Perhaps she will publicly call upon her brother to return home, and have his days-in-court, or perhaps she will unfortunately be too busy with other more-urgent governmental-tasks ? Time to show some leadership and independence, Ma'am !

And DPM-Chalerm might hand him his promised promotion, to police-general, while he's here ?

Wow, she was correct and truthful.

Can there be anything more embarrassing for a Prime Minister to admit that an arrest warrant for her brother and main advisor and 'del facto' boss, former PM himself is wanted by the law for failing to show up in court. All politically motivated? or does the PM respect the court, what a squirm this farce is becoming. Your full opinion on the matter please mam.

Must be seen to be doing something ,even thought we are doing nothing,might as well start a coffee HUB

What about pursuing extradition?

What about pursuing extradition?

I'm shocked, shocked I say. Extradition? you farangs don unerstan Thailand.

Yes, normal for the court, of course his actions are not normal,

but she conveniently glosses over that point.

Yet one more arrest warrant for him from one more court of law in Thailand.

He could probably paper over his whole bathroom with the paperwork just

for warrents for his stalled court dates awaiting his presence.

He may do something in the bathroom with the warrants but it would most probably be an action that requires you to place your hand behind you while you squat.

Can there be anything more embarrassing for a Prime Minister to admit that an arrest warrant for her brother and main advisor and 'del facto' boss, former PM himself is wanted by the law for failing to show up in court. All politically motivated? or does the PM respect the court, what a squirm this farce is becoming. Your full opinion on the matter please mam.

Can there be anything more embarrasing for a Judicial system that allows a man convicted to 20+ still walking the streets

Where on where are theusual suspects defending this lot saying it is politically motivated. They must be running out of wind

He may do something in the bathroom with the warrants but it would most probably be an action that requires you to place your hand behind you while you squat.

Thaksin usually gets other people to do his dirty work, so i can't see him undertaking that action himself. Sure there are a few of his fans here who would consider that task an honour.

Where on where are the usual suspects defending this lot saying it is politically motivated. They must be running out of wind

Getting in the proxy wiper line.

.

Something fishy here. They wait until now to issue a warrant for his arrest. Is this his free ticket back here? And once in country will the current PM turn over the reigns?

if they are serious about issuing an ARREST WARRANT, then they should turn it over to INTERPOL.

Especially since the person in the arrest warrant is a FUGITIVE.

By the way: Anyone know who is behind Krisdamahanakorn PLC, who is controlling it? I could imagine there could be some names in the list that are somehow connected to... well, you know who.

Something fishy here. They wait until now to issue a warrant for his arrest. Is this his free ticket back here? And once in country will the current PM turn over the reigns?

Reins vs reigns. The first one would enable him to control Thailand.

The second word................well, we can't go there can we?.

if they are serious about issuing an ARREST WARRANT, then they should turn it over to INTERPOL.

Like I said before this so-called "arrest warrant" is just another tiny slap on the fingers.

The Thai court can get as much arrest warrants as they want, but nothing is ever going to change. Thaksin is not gonna get arrested anyway. He is still going to be free, roaming around in the world and enjoy life with all the taxpayers money etc. money that is gained by corruption, by ripping of clueless farang and International business entrepreneurs who know NOTHING about business corruption in Thailand,…

So ARREST WARRANT???? Come on.... Do you think that is going to make Thaksin quiver in fear? He's going to piss in his pants laughing while the rest of Thailand is suffering…

ARREST WARRANT, Oh my that is so threatening

Ok so now he has officially got a warrant on him. If he did a no-show, then what??? He'll be a wanted man (officially) won't he?

Ok so now he has officially got a warrant on him. If he did a no-show, then what??? He'll be a wanted man (officially) won't he?

Technically yes, but by know he's peeing in his pants laughing, since he knows nobody in the Thai justice systems and ministries is going to dare to catch him…

Normal for a Shinawatra.

Ok so now he has officially got a warrant on him. If he did a no-show, then what??? He'll be a wanted man (officially) won't he?

He has officially had an arrest warrant out on him as far as i understand, from the moment he skipped bail in 2007. This is an additional arrest warrant.