Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Noppadon: Thaksin didn't fund UDD

Published: 9/06/2010
Online news: Breakingnews
www.bangkokpost.com

Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra did not provide funding to the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD)for its anti-government rallies as alleged by the authorities, a spokesman for the fugitive politician said on Tuesday.

Lawyer Noppadon Pattama was responding to Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation (CRES) spokesman Col Sansern Kaewkamnerd, who said a total of 60 billion baht from 106 banking accounts of individuals and corporate bodies that have close connections with Thaksin was spent supporting the red-shirt political movement.

Mr Noppadon said the accusation was totally groundless.

“The assets belonging to Thaksin and his family were confiscated. The combined money in the mentioned 106 bank accounts was not as much as 60 billion baht as claimed. The story was made up solely to discredit [the government's] political rivals,” Mr Noppadon said.

Thaksin's lawyer said the use of emergency law to confiscate people's assets was a serious abuse of an individual’s rights.

He said the issuing of an arrest warrant for Thaksin on terrorism charges had failed to prevent the ex-premier traveling to various countries. The international community understood that it was politically motivated, he said.

He said Thaksin has hired foreign lawyers only for the purpose of proving his innocence, because he was unfairly treated, not for the purpose of causing Thailand any harm.

No comments: