Thaksin's wife back in Thailand; his assets declared before deadline

The wife of Thailand's deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra returned to Bangkok from London with two of her children Wednesday, the last day members of the previous cabinet were allowed to submit their financial reports one month after their ouster, Thai newspapers reported Thursday.

Former PM Thaksin managed to submit his reports of assets and liabilities to the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC) by the deadline Wednesday, said NCCC spokesman Klanarong Chantik. Thaksin had his representatives submit the documents on his behalf.

Thaksin has been in London since he was overthrown in the Sept. 19 military coup in his country when he was on an overseas trip. His request for an early return to Thailand has received a lukewarm response from the ruling administration.

His wife Pojaman Shinawatra arrived Wednesday afternoon at the new Suvarnabhumi International Airport after spending almost one month at a London apartment with Thaksin and their three children, a Thai Rak Thai party source was quoted by newspaper The Nation as saying.

Also joining her on the Thai Airways flight from London were her children Panthongtae and Paethongtarn, as well as Thaksin's two trusted aides Padung Limcharoenrat and Pansak Winyuratn.

The source said that Pojaman was likely to have brought with her documents regarding Thaksin's assets declaration.

All 33 members of the previous Cabinet met the deadline for complying with the requirements of the anti-graft law, according to the NCCC spokesman.

Klanarong said the NCCC had to announce the declarations to the public within 30 days. After that, it would consider and verify whether the Cabinet members were suspected of corruption.

Meanwhile, Asset Examination Committee (AEC) secretary Kaewsan Atibodhi on Wednesday said the panel would look into 20 corruption cases over the first three months of its operation.

The AEC agreed that each of its members must probe at least two corruption allegations. The AEC has accepted nine corruption cases and will accept three more on Tuesday.

The AEC will appoint 20 teams of experts in different sectors to assist its members. "They are like 20 little troops which will help us search for evidence in each case. The AEC will be the commander," he said.

Kaewsan said the AEC's working style is different from that of the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC). "The AEC will be water-tight and faster than the NCCC," he said. It would focus on government projects and how serious were the offences.

"We will probe such cases as one that is not large, like a 10 million baht (270,000 U.S. dollars) (suspicious) project, but involves atrocious offence." Kaewsan said.

Both AEC and NCCC were appointed by the military Council for Democratic Reform (now named Council for National Security) after it led the coup to oust Thaksin to probe assets and suspected corruption cases against the former cabinet members.

Source: Xinhua