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Deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra
will be arrested if he returns home from exile, even if his
victorious allies form a government following last weekend's
election.
"The court and police had already issued
arrest warrants on him, so once he arrives back to Thailand the
authorities concerned are duty-bound by law to arrest him," said
Samphan Sarathana, an official in the Office of the
Attorney-General.
Thaksin and members of his family face
several corruption-related charges dating from his six years in
office. He was overthrown in a bloodless military coup last year
and has lived abroad since then, but said on Tuesday that he
planned to return within a few months.
Mr Samphan said the results of the
election, won by the pro-Thaksin People's Power Party (PPP), had
no bearing on the legal cases against the former prime minister.
"The case is gone too far for a reversal," he said.
Thaksin said on Tuesday in Hong Kong that
he was looking to return to Thailand between mid-February and
April. He planned to stay out of direct politics but was prepared
to serve as adviser to the PPP, he said.
The PPP won 233 of 480 seats in the lower
house of parliament in the vote last Sunday, while its main rival,
the Democrat Party, won 165. The PPP says it has enough support
from smaller parties to form a coalition, but analysts said
horse-trading continued and it was too early to declare the
pro-Thaksin grouping as the next government.
An arrest warrant was issued for Thaksin
in August after he failed to appear in court in a case over a
conflict of interest in a land deal while he was prime minister.
His wife, Pojaman, is accused of illegally buying real estate from
a government agency in effect controlled by her husband.
The military-appointed government that
succeeded Thaksin began several investigations into his alleged
corruption and has frozen millions of dollars of his family's
assets. Other cases against him and family members are pending. The
multimillionaire, who owns Manchester City soccer club, has been
living mostly in England since the coup 15 months ago.
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