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BANGKOK: Thailand's Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to hear new corruption charges against deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra, involving a controversial loan to military-ruled Myanmar.
The case is the second against Thaksin accepted by the court this week, after judges on Monday agreed to consider charges against the billionaire and his aides stemming from a lottery scandal.
In the latest case, military-backed investigators accused the fallen premier of conflict of interest in a loan granted by the Export-Import Bank of Thailand so that Myanmar could buy satellite services from Thaksin's Shin Satellite.
The investigators claim Thaksin wrongly ordered the Exim Bank to increase a three-billion-baht (US$89.6-million) loan to four billion baht, so that Myanmar's ruling government could buy more services from ShinSat.
ShinSat is part of the Shin Corp telecom firm, which Thaksin founded. His family sold the company to Singapore investment firm Temasek Holdings in January 2006 in a tax-free deal that prompted street protests leading to the military coup against him.
"The charges submitted by the (investigators) are enough to warrant a hearing. The court decided to take the case," Judge Panya Suthibodi told the court, setting the first hearing for September 15.
Neither Thaksin nor his lawyer attended the hearing Wednesday.
The case is the latest in the mounting legal challenges against Thaksin. He also faces trial at the Supreme Court for allegedly arranging for his wife to buy a prime chunk of real estate for just one-third its appraised value, while other graft cases are pending.
- AFP/yb
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