Thaksin cleared of financial wrongdoing

BANGKOK (AFP): By the tightest of margins, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was this afternoon found not guilty in a historic assets concealment case that threatened to bar him from political office. In a surprise decision, the Constitutional Court’s 15-member panel voted eight to seven to clear Thaksin of the charges. “Thaksin will continue to be prime minister, by a vote of eight to seven,” said Judge Kramol Tongthamachart. “The majority of the judges decided…that Thaksin did not intend to conceal the assets,” said another judge, Ura Wang-Orm-Glang. The financial markets rallied at the news, with the Stock Exchange of Thailand’s main index jumping 4.1%. Had the Constitutional Court found him guilty of concealing part of his huge personal fortune in an official filing lodged in 1997, the Prime Minister would have faced a five-year ban from political office.