By Tim Johnston
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, October 22, 2008

BANGKOK, Oct. 21 -- Thailand's Supreme Court on Tuesday found former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra guilty in absentia of abuse of office and sentenced him to two years in prison.

Thaksin fled to Britain in August and has said he will not return to answer charges that he calls politically motivated.

"I have been informed of the result," he told the Reuters news agency Tuesday. "I had long anticipated that it would turn out this way."

Prosecutors said they would ask Britain to extradite him.

Thaksin's wife, Pojaman, who shares his exile and was accused along with him in the case, was acquitted.

The verdict relates to a case that began in 2003, shortly after Thaksin became prime minister. Pojaman bought a prime plot of land in central Bangkok from the central bank's Financial Institutions Development Fund for 772 million baht, now about $23 million, outbidding two real estate developers in a process that political observers generally say was clean.

The prosecutors' argument was not that the deal was corrupt per se, but that it contravened the National Counter-Corruption Act, which stipulates that government officials and their spouses may not enter into, or have interests in, contracts with state agencies under their supervision.

The military removed Thaksin from office in 2006 while he was overseas. In December, his allies won an election that ended the army's rule, allowing him to return to the country, though not to his former job. But his legal difficulties got worse, and in August the couple absconded to Britain, from where he faxed a handwritten letter to news media outlets saying that he had feared for his life after his return and that he thought the charges were part of a politically motivated witch hunt.

Thaksin has been banned from politics for five years and is facing at least 10 more charges. In the criminal courts, he faces cases related to the state lottery and a loan to the government of neighboring Burma. The Supreme Court said last week that it would hear a civil case that could lead to the forfeiture of about 76 billion baht (about $2.2 billion) that Thaksin received when he sold his telecommunications business to Singapore's Temasek investment fund.

Thaksin accuses the judicial system of being part of a politically motivated program to remove him and his allies from office; his opponents say the courts are exercising new-found independence since escaping Thaksin's autocratic rule.