Potjaman pleads not guilty to graft charges

Bangkok: The wife of ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to corruption charges against her and her husband, who she said would return from exile to fight them in May.

The trial of Potjaman Shinawatra began two weeks after her return from exile. Analysts believe her return is designed to mend ties with the coup leaders and the royalist establishment backing them to pave the way for Thaksin's homecoming.

The trial also began a day after the coup-making council disbanded itself and promised there would be no more coups as a Thaksin-backed coalition government prepared to take office following a December 23 general election.

In a written statement to a nine-judge Supreme Court panel, Potjaman, free on a 5 million baht ($150,000; Dh550,500) bond, denied she had violated anti-graft laws that prevent serving politicians and their spouses from doing business deals with state agencies.

"The second defendant has denied all the charges and asked for a 90-day period to seek evidence and witnesses," Judge Thonglor Chomngam said.

The panel set the next hearings for April 29 and 30, by which time a coalition government led by the openly pro-Thaksin People Power Party (PPP) will be in power.

The charges were the result of an investigation by a panel appointed by the coup-making generals and stemmed from Potjaman's purchase of a prime piece of land in Bangkok owned by the central bank at an auction other bidders backed out of.

If convicted, Potjaman and Thaksin - a telecommunications billionaire whose lawyer told reporters yesterday May was a "safe" period for him to return to fight the charges - could face up to 10 years in jail.

But political analysts say it is unlikely the couple would end up in jail as witnesses from state agencies and bidders who dropped out would be reluctant to testify against them with the PPP-led coalition in power.

"There will be a wholesale effort to wipe the target clean, to allow Thaksin and Potjaman to get off," said Chulalongkorn University political scientist Thitinan Pongsudhirak.

"If the trial had started last year, there might have been people willing to testify against them, but in the next three months, I doubt it," he said.

After his ouster in a bloodless 2006 coup, Thaksin was accused by military-appointed graftbusters of presiding over rampant corruption during his five years in power, but he and his family have faced few formal charges.