Around 2,000 protesters from the anti-government civil group the People's Alliance for Democracy ( PAD) on Tuesday marched to the British Embassy in Bangkok, demanding the British government to extradite ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife back to Thailand.
The demonstrators, lifting anti-Thaksin banners written in several languages and shouting slogans, marched from the CentralWorld shopping center which locates at the heart of Bangkok to the embassy. Several main streets' traffic was forced to be closed and several hundreds of policemen were deployed around the embassy area.
The PAD leaders, standing on a truck parked in front of the embassy, said Thaksin, who was ousted during a military coup in 2006, and his wife Pojaman have been convicted and the Thai justice system is not intervened as Thaksin claimed. Therefore, the British government should not accept Thaksin couple's political asylum apply.
The couple did not appeared to report to the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions on Aug. 11 morning for a hearing on their trials in the Ratchadaphisek land deal. They flew to London on the same day and as Thaksin said in his handwritten statement distributed to media outlets that he and his wife would not attend the court hearing. They announced their decision to seek asylum aboard.
The couple was charged with purchasing the property at the questionably low price of 772 million baht (US$26 million) from the Bank of Thailand's Financial Institutions Development Fund in 2003 while he was in office, which was against the constitution. Thaksin was subsequently charged with alleged corruption and abuse of power.
Both Thaksin and his wife, who was convicted on July 31 on a separate case of tax evasion and released on bail, have denied any wrongdoing.
(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2008)
