Wife of ousted Thai premier returns to face charges (1st Lead)

Jan 8, 2008, 7:57 GMT

Bangkok - The wife of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra returned to Thailand Tuesday to face charges that she unlawfully obtained a block of land in central Bangkok while her husband was in charge of the country.

The return of Potjaman Shinawatra is seen as a test of the political waters to see whether Thaksin himself could return after being ousted in a military coup in September 2006.

Potjaman arrived on a flight from Hong Kong and immediately went to the Supreme Court where she was bailed for 5 million baht (151,000 dollars) and the trial date of January 23 set, online media reports said.

The court banned her from leaving the country or interfering in the judicial process. Pojaman, accompanied by her son, Panthongtae, and two daughters, Pinthongta and Paethongtan, later went to the police Special Investigation Department where she paid bail of 1 million baht in a share manipulation case involved her family property company, SC Asset Co.

The political situation in Thailand is currently uncertain after a party that supports Thaksin and his return won the most seats in last month's parliamentary election, albeit not a majority. Thaksin, however, has many powerful detractors among the military and old elite.

The People Power Party (PPP) won 233 out of 480 seats in the election but now is charging that a 'biased' Election Commission is determined to weaken the party by ejecting some of its winning candidates for election irregularities. The PPP also faces a court challenge that accuses it of being an illegal party because it is backed by Thaksin, who was last year banned from politics for five years.

The military junta initiated a variety of investigations against Thaksin in the wake of its bloodless coup, accusing him of corruption and favouritism, but little has come of the inquiries, which heightens the importance of the accusations that Potjaman purchased an underpriced plot of land with her husband's help.

Potjaman is widely thought to be a powerful influence on her husband and the controller of the family purse strings.

Thaksin remains popular with the country's poor, who support his populist policies like cheap development loans and health care. His image in Bangkok was badly tarnished, however, when at the beginning of 2006 he sold his sprawling telecommunications empire to Singapore in a tax-free deal.