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A leading human rights group accused the Premier League last night
of showing a “shocking lack of interest” in ethical
standards for sanctioning Thaksin Shinawatra’s controversial
takeover of Manchester City.
Brad Adams, the executive director of the Asia division of Human
Rights Watch (HRW), branded Thaksin a “human rights abuser of
the worst kind” who should not have passed the League’s
Fit and Proper Persons Test (FAPPT) and claimed that the former
Prime Minister of Thailand’s £81.6 million buyout of
City would “end in tears” sooner or later.
The accusations drew a robust defence from the League, City and
Thaksin, whose lawyer said that the allegations of
“widespread, serious and systematic” human rights
abuses against his client were completely unfounded.
HRW’s concerns about Thaksin, which were outlined in a
letter to the League yesterday, were echoed by Amnesty
International.
Speaking to The Times, Adams, who claimed that the League had
not made “the slightest bit of effort” to contact HRW,
said: “I feel sorry for Manchester City supporters. I know
they want to be able to buy the best players and for their team to
succeed, but they don’t want this man’s
[Thaksin’s] money to buy players and I don’t think he
is in it for the long haul. This will end in tears for them and
they would have been better off having someone else buy the
club.”
Thaksin was ousted from office in a bloodless military coup last
September, but his takeover of City last month continues to be
overshadowed by accusations that, during his five years in office
from 2001 to 2006, he presided over human rights violations.
HRW claims that the most disturbing of these came during the
notorious “war on drugs” when more than 2,275 people
were killed during a three-month period at the beginning of
February 2003.
The next year, the US State Department reported that
Thailand’s human rights record had “worsened with
regard to extrajudicial killings and arbitrary arrests”,
while the United Nations was said to have expressed deep concerns
about the high number of deaths. HRW also alleges that
Thaksin’s “brutal” attempts to suppress an
insurgency in the south of Thailand led to the deaths of hundreds
of ethnic Malay Muslims.
“Our research and that of other credible organisations
shows that Mr Thaksin’s time in office was characterised by
numerous extrajudicial executions, ‘disappearances’,
illegal abductions, arbitrary detentions, torture and other
mistreatment of persons and attacks on media freedoms,” Adams
wrote in his letter to the League.
“Based on his record, Mr Thaksin does not appear to us to
be ‘fit and proper’ under any reasonable definition of
that term. His past actions should lead to him being subjected to
investigations by impartial police and prosecutors, not welcomed
into the club of owners of the most popular football league in the
world.”
The allegations were strenuously denied by the lawyer of
Thaksin, who also contests a series of corruption charges brought
against him by the unelected Thai government. “The civil and
human rights charges against him have never been proven,”
Noppadol Pattama said. “My client deserves to be treated as
an innocent man until proven guilty. I hope Manchester City fans
and British people are fair-minded. They should suspend their
judgment before deciding Thaksin is not fit.”
In a letter back to Adams, Richard Scudamore, the League’s
chief executive, defended the FAPPT, which effectively prevents
people who have been convicted of criminal offences, such as fraud
or money laundering, from owning or becoming a director of a club,
and pointed out that, on such matters as human rights abuses, the
organisation is guided by the Government.
“The issues that you raise are extremely important, so
much so that they fall to the UK Government, statutory authorities
and the European Union to consider,” Scudamore wrote.
“We would presume that you have presented any evidence that
you believe is relevant to those authorities.”
Source: Times Online
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