Criminal Wanted: Thaksin and Pojamarn

BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Thailand's Supreme Court issued arrest warrants Monday for deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife after they skipped a court appearance and fled to the United Kingdom, court officials said.

Pojaman Shinawatra and her husband Thaksin leave Bangkok Criminal Court on July 31 in Bangkok.

The couple was to appear in court Monday in a corruption case.

Instead, Thaksin released a three-page handwritten statement saying he opted to go to England because he did not expect fair treatment in Thai courts, the Thai News Agency said.

Thaksin could not immediately be reached for comment.

Thaksin and his wife, Pojaman Shinawatra, were scheduled to testify in a Supreme Court case about the unlawful purchase of real estate. The real-estate scandal case is one of several corruption claims that Thaksin and his family face in court.

Their lawyer had said the pair would "definitely appear" in court Monday to fight the corruption charges, the News Agency (TNA) said. Watch more about the ex-Thai leader's decision to flee »

But the couple did not return to Bangkok on Sunday night from a trip to the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

In the real-estate case, Pojaman is accused of using her husband's political influence to buy undeveloped land from a government agency for about a third of its estimated value.

The former prime minister has consistently denied that he or his family was involved in any wrongdoing.

Last month, Pojaman was found guilty of evading millions of dollars in taxes and sentenced to three years in prison, state media reported.

She was released pending appeal on bail of five million baht ($149,000).

Pojaman, her step-brother and her secretary were convicted on charges alleging that they intentionally avoided paying taxes worth 546 million baht ($16.4 million) in a 1997 transfer of shares in the family's telecommunications business.

Thaksin, who served two terms as prime minister, was deposed in a bloodless military coup in September 2006.

The billionaire leader -- a telecommunications tycoon who owns the Manchester City Football Club of the English Premier League -- is accused of abusing the country's system of checks and balances and bending government policy to benefit his family business.

He lived abroad until his allies, the People Power Party, won nearly half the seats in the lower house in December's parliamentary elections.

In his statement, Thaksin said he returned home only to find the political atmosphere did not permit him to prove his innocence because of "intervention in the judicial system."

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/08/11/thai.leader/index.html