Thaksin faces charges over Myanmar loan

By SUTIN WANNABOVORN

A Thai anti-graft body set up to investigate ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra announced Monday it will seek to prosecute the ousted leader in connection with a government loan to Myanmar for communications satellite services.

The Assets Examination Committee, established after Thaksin was deposed by a September 2006 military coup, said it determined the 2004 loan by the state-controlled Export-Import Bank of Thailand was meant to benefit the Shin Satellite company, which was owned by Thaksin's family.

Thaksin was prime minister at the time the loan -- on terms more favorable to the borrower than available commercially -- was approved.

The case is the fourth against Thaksin forwarded to state prosecutors, though none has yet come to trial. Thaksin has said he is innocent of any wrongdoing.

The committee's charges against Thaksin in the Myanmar loan case cover both conflict of interest and abuse of his official powers, said committee spokesman Sak Korsaengruang.

He said the committee will forward the case to the attorney general for review, and make formal charges in court within 14 days.

Sak said if Thaksin is found guilty, he could face up to 10 years in jail.

The committee said Thaksin used his power as prime minister to instruct the state Export-Import Bank to extend the $127 million loan.

The 12-year loan provides a credit line for government construction and telecommunications projects that use Thai suppliers. It allows a five-year deferral of repayment of principal, with a 3 percent annual interest rate.

The loan was suspended after the coup, but the Thai government of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, a Thaksin ally, decided this month to release the remainder of the funds.

The committee found Thaksin promised Myanmar's military leaders the loan during "unofficial" negotiations, and increased the total and reduced the interest rate without Cabinet approval.

The committee said it believed the loan was to the bank's disadvantage.

The loan came through about a week after Shin Satellite, a subsidiary of Shin Corp. -- then owned by Thaksin's family -- won the right to establish a broadband project in Myanmar.

Thaksin's main lawyer, Pichit Chuenban, said he could not comment on the charges since his client had not yet assigned him the case.