Verdict reading on Thaksin's assets case begins

BANGKOK, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- The verdict reading on Thailand's ex-premier Thaksin shinawatra's frozen assets kicked off in the Supreme Court around 1:30 p.m. on Friday.

The Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Political Office Holders is expected to give the final verdict on whether to unfreeze, confiscate or partially confiscate the 76-billion-baht ( about 2.3 billion U.S. dollars) assets of Thaksin and his family, and the procedure may last two or three hours before the nine judges vote and hand down the final ruling.

Thaksin, the self-exiled ex-premier, was ousted by a military coup in 2006 and sentenced in absentia to two-year imprisonment under the charge of conflict of interests in 2008. After the coup, the military-regime-appointed Assets Examination Committee ordered a freeze on domestic bank accounts held by Thaksin and his wife Pojaman, claiming Thaksin had become unusually wealthy while in office.

Thaksin earlier said that he would monitor the live broadcast of the verdict in Dubai and that none of his family members would attend the verdict session.

According to The Nation online, about three companies of policemen are deployed to guard the Suprme Court compound and surrounding areas Friday, while Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thuagsuban said the situation is stable.

Red Siam, a splinter group of the pro-Thaksin movement "red shirts", announced Tuesday that they would hold rallies at the nearby Sanam Luang square from afternoon to midnight, everyday from Thursday to Saturday.

Who is Thaksin Shinawatra

Former police Lieutenant-Colonel Thaksin, born in Thailand's northern province Chiang Mai in 1949, became one of the richest people in Thailand by setting up telecommunications companies like Shin Corporation and Advanced Info Service before entering politics.

Thaksin entered politics by joining the Phalang Dharma Party (Power of Justice Party) in 1994, and once served as Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister in two administrations.

He later founded the Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party in 1998, which won two landslide election victories in 2001 and 2005 and made him Thailand's 23th Prime Minister. He was the first elected prime minister in Thai modern political history to complete a full term of four years and win a re-election. The TRT party also became the strongest ever political party in the country, once boasting members.

Thaksin's administration is branded as a populist one, whose policy platform caters mostly the country's rural and urban poor, with projects like 30-baht universal health care, One Tambon (sub-district) One Product (OTOP), Village Fund to promote development of rural enterprises and cheap housing for urban low-incomers, that earned him great support among the grass-root people, especially in the north and northeast, where the country's majority rural poor reside.

Thaksin, the self-exiled ex-premier, was ousted by a military coup in 2006 and sentenced in absentia to two-year imprisonment under the charge of conflict of interests in 2008.