page_title: 2010 Thai political protests
section_title: Thaksin asset seizure court case
hierarchical_section_title: 2010 Thai political protests / Background / Thaksin asset seizure court case
caption_attribution_description: English: The first and last pages of the Judgment of the Supreme Court of Justice's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Offices in the Black Case No. CDHPO 14/2551 and the Red Case No. CDHPP 1/2553 between the Attorney General, Petitioner, Police Lieutenant Colonel Thanksin Shinawatra, Respondent, and Khunying Potjaman Shinawatra, et al., Contenders, Dated February 26, 2010, Re: Confiscatory Action. By the Judgment, the Court confiscated half of the Shinawatra family's fortune, after finding Thaksin guilty of abuse of power, malfeasance and policy corruption to benefit himself and his family. The last page contained the signatures of the nine judges constituting the Chamber in charge of this case. ไทย: หน้าต้นและหน้าท้าย คำพิพากษาศาลฎีกาแผนกคดีอาญาของผู้ดำรงตำแหน่งทางการเมือง ในคดีหมายเลขดำที่ อม. ๑๔/๒๕๕๑ และคดีหมายเลขแดงที่ อม. ๑/๒๕๕๓ ระหว่างอัยการสูงสุด ผู้ร้อง พันตำรวจโท ทักษิณ ชินวัตร ผู้ถูกกล่าวหา กับคุณหญิงพจมาน ชินวัตร และพวก ผู้คัดค้าน ลงวันที่ ๒๖ กุมภาพันธ์ ๒๕๕๓ เรื่อง ขอให้ทรัพย์สินตกเป็นของแผ่นดิน ในคดีนี้ ศาลพิพากษาให้ทรัพย์สินกึ่งหนึ่งของตระกูลชินวัตรตกเป็นของแผ่นดิน หลังวินิจฉัยว่า ผู้ถูกกล่าวหาใช้อำนาจโดยมิชอบ ประพฤติมิชอบในตำแหน่งหน้าที่ และฉ้อฉลเชิงนโยบายเพื่อเอื้อประโยชน์แก่ตนเองและวงศ์ตระกูล ในหน้าสุดท้าย ผู้พิพากษาเก้านายซึ่งประกอบกันเป็นองค์คณะรับผิดชอบคดีนี้ลงลายมือชื่อไว้เป็นสำคัญ
context_page_description: The 2010 Thai political protests were a series of political protests that were organised by the National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship in Bangkok, Thailand from 12 March–19 May 2010 against the Democrat Party-led government. The UDD called for Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to dissolve parliament and hold elections earlier than the end of term elections scheduled in 2012. The UDD demanded that the government stand down, but negotiations to set an election date failed. The protests escalated into prolonged violent confrontations between the protesters and the military, and attempts to negotiate a ceasefire failed. More than 80 civilians and six soldiers were killed, and more than 2,100 injured by the time the military violently put down the protest on 19 May.
context_section_description: In February 2010, Abhisit established 38 security centres in the north and northeast to crack down on anti-government and anti-coup protesters. Five thousand troops (54 companies) were deployed at 200 checkpoints to prevent protesters from entering Bangkok. In total, about 20,000 security personnel were deployed. Abhisit also escalated efforts to monitor community radio stations, which were often used by rural residents to voice discontent and by activists to organise protests.
  On 7 February 2010, Abhisit's spokesperson, Thepthai Senapong, compared Red Shirts to dogs and vowed to use the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to crack down on Red Shirt community radio stations. He noted that if using the NTC to enforce the media crackdown was illegal, the government would try to pass a special law that would make such a crackdown legal. The NTC acting secretary-general was a member of the government-appointed Situation Monitoring Committee in the run up to Thaksin's February court verdict.
  The government claimed to foreign diplomats that the National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) would "spark violence" and "intensify its agitation and step up protests in Bangkok and around the country in order to disrupt the work of the government and the judiciary" in the period leading up to 26 February. On that date, the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions was scheduled to deliver its verdict on whether to seize former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's 76 billion baht (US$2.36 billion) in assets that the military junta had frozen years earlier. Abhisit's father, a director of CP Foods, announced that he was spending 300,000 baht (US$9,300) a month to provide supplementary security for the premier.
  At noon of 1 February, bags of human excrement and fermented fish, were thrown at Abhisit's house. Abhisit linked the incident to Thaksin's assets seizure trial. The Deputy Prime Minister, Suthep Thaugsuban, (in charge of security), blamed the UDD for the incident. The perpetrator was arrested; he confessed and claimed that he threw the bags because he was fed up with police indifference to his complaints of people smoking cigarettes near his house.
  On the evening of 15 February, police and soldiers established scores of checkpoints and organised special patrols in inner Bangkok as reports from government security agencies continued to play up fears of anti-government rallies. Abhisit's government expected major UDD-led unrest immediately following the announcement of the Supreme Court's 26 February verdict. However, the UDD said they did not protest against the verdict. Instead they announced that they would hold a one million person protest in Bangkok on 14 March to call for elections. Rumours and suspicions that the protest was financed by Thaksin, as he had been found guilty, were widespread both in the media and among the population. The protesters arrived in Bangkok in smaller numbers than announced, wearing Thaksin face designs on their red tee shirts, flags, and banners. Estimates of the overall cost of the protest, given the number of protesters and the estimated sum that Thaksin had dedicated to it, led observers to guess that it could not last longer than two months. Although the number of protesters decreased from around 150,000 on the first weekend to no more than 5,000 on 19 May at the Ratchaprasong intersection, the two month estimates of duration of the protest proved to be accurate.
caption: The first and last page of the Thaksin verdict signed by the nine supreme court judges
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