Former Thai Pm Thaksin Found Guilty of Corruption

Thailand's former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was today sentenced to two years' imprisonment in absentia over a corrupt land deal.

In a ruling that made him the first Thai politician to be convicted of corruption committed while prime minister, Thaksin was found to have violated conflict of interest rules in helping his wife buy land from a state agency at a reduced price.

The conviction was the first against Thaksin since he was ousted by a military coup in 2006, despite a raft of other corruption charges against him.

But his wife, Pojaman, who jumped bail and fled to England with the former leader two months ago, was cleared of wrongdoing in the real estate deal.

The split decision by Thailand's supreme court on a five-to-four majority verdict cleared Thaksin, 59, of more serious charges of abuse of power to obtain the land at a bargain price.

"Thaksin violated the article of the constitution on conflict of interest, as he was then prime minister and head of a government and was supposed to work for the benefit of the public," said one of the nine-judge panel reading the verdict.

But the panel ruled seven-to-two to acquit Pojaman, 51, of all the charges in connection with the land purchase, though she has already been sentenced to three years jail for tax evasion in a separate case.

Immediately after the verdict was announced Thaksin, the former owner and now honorary chairman of Manchester City Football Club, dismissed the ruling as politically motivated. "I have been informed of the result," he told Reuters news agency. "I had long anticipated it would turn out this way."

After the verdict the prosecutors said they were preparing to file a formal extradition request with the UK to bring Thaksin back to Thailand to serve his sentence and face other corruption charges.

The supreme court has also agreed to hear five other corruption cases against Thaksin and there five warrants out for his arrest following his flight in August.

Today's case revolved around a 5.3 hectare piece of land that Pojaman bought from a state financial institution in 2003 for £12.9m, just a third of its estimated value, two years after Thaksin became prime minister.

The judges said that Thaksin had violated Thailand's corruption laws by allowing his wife to take part in the bidding process for the land.

Hundreds of die hard supporters of the former prime minister gathered outside the court as the decision was being read.

The conviction against former prime minister is unlikely to alleviate the political turmoil that has left the government - led by Thaksin's brother-in-law, Somchai Wongsawat - under siege from protesters for months.

The demonstrators, who have occupied the grounds of Government House and forced Somchai to run the country from a disused airport, accuse him of being a puppet of Thaksin and are demanding he quit over deadly force used against them by police.