Deposed Thai PM Banned from Politics

by Jordan Yerman | May 30, 2007 at 10:59 am

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Thailand's ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and 110 other senior party officials have been banned from political office for five years.

The Constitutional Tribunal also ordered Mr Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party to be dissolved after finding it guilty of violating electoral laws.

Judges ruled that two members had bribed smaller parties to influence the result of elections in April 2006.

Mr Thaksin was later removed in a military coup, accused of corruption.

The verdicts were announced in a heavily guarded courtroom in the capital, Bangkok, after hours of suspense.

I don't know if "suspense" is the word I'd have chosen, as it is fairly predictable for the leaders of a coup to make sure that the one they have deposed will not be able to re-enter the political arena.