THAI OPPOSITION SAYS
Thaksin divorce won't free frozen funds
Agence France-Presse
First Posted 22:59:00 11/16/2008
Filed Under: People, Graft & Corruption
BANGKOK--A lawyer for Thailand's opposition party said Sunday that billionaire ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra would not recoup his frozen assets simply by divorcing his wife.
Thaksin's 32-year marriage to Pojaman was officially ended on Friday at the Thai consulate in Hong Kong, with family and intelligence sources claiming the split was being carried out for financial or legal reasons.
But the opposition Democrat party's legal expert said the couple, who have been living in exile since August to avoid jail sentences at home, did not stand to gain from the split.
"The divorce cannot attribute the money to any one side, it is still jointly owned and they would both need to prove how the money was earned," Thaworn Senneam told AFP.
"I think it is a purely personal decision," he added.
Thaksin has had $2.2 billion worth of assets from the sale of his company Shin Corp frozen by the Thai courts.
He is awaiting a hearing on whether his assets can be confiscated on the grounds that he is "unusually rich," as alleged by a corruption panel tasked with investigating the fallen leader.
The telecoms tycoon, who was toppled in a 2006 coup after serving five years as premier, was sentenced in absentia to two years in prison on separate corruption charges in August.
Thaksin, 59, and Pojaman, 51, had already fled to exile in Britain in August after Pojaman and her brother were sentenced to three years in jail for tax evasion.
Following Thaksin's sentence in August, the pair last week had their British visas cancelled, leaving them searching for a new refuge.
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