THAILAND:THAILAND'S OUSTED former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, made an emotional homecoming after a 17-month exile yesterday and was immediately charged with corruption.
Emerging from Bangkok's airport after formally surrendering to police, Mr Thaksin prostrated himself, touching his forehead to the ground, hands clasped in a sign of respect, before briefly greeting throngs of cheering supporters.
He was immediately whisked to the supreme court, where he was freed on bail. He vowed to clear his name, saying charges against him were "made up" by the military to justify the coup that ousted him in September 2006, although he insisted he had no thoughts of vengeance.
"I have the heart of a sportsman - when the game is finished, it's finished," he told a packed press conference at a Bangkok hotel. Earlier he told reporters: "When the game is over, we must come together and settle our differences, forgive each other and help push the country forward."
Mr Thaksin, Thailand's longest-serving elected prime minister before he was driven from power, insisted yesterday he would "never, ever" return to active politics and wanted to live "quietly and peacefully with my family just like any other Thai person".
But most Thais believe the charismatic former telecommunications mogul, who remains highly popular among the rural poor, will exert a strong behind-the-scenes influence on the newly elected government, led by the People's Power party, which is packed with his supporters.
Surapong Suebwonglee, the finance minister and a long-time Thaksin ally, said yesterday he would ask the former premier for guidance on how to revive the Thai economy, now lagging behind others in the region. "We can't appoint him to any official position, but we'll still ask him for advice," Mr Surapong said.
Mr Thaksin still faces the prospect of prolonged legal wrangling over the corruption charges. He also wants to reclaim up to $1.9 billion (€1.3 billion) in assets - the profits from his family's January 2006 sale of Shin Corp, its telecommunications empire - which have been frozen by the military-installed government.
In court Mr Thaksin was formally charged with abuse of power connected to his wife's controversial 2003 acquisition of a plot of prime Bangkok real estate from a central bank distressed asset fund.
Afterwards he was taken to the attorney general's office to face separate allegations that he and his wife had concealed shareholdings in SC Asset, a family real estate company, during his premiership. Mr Thaksin, who said he was previously deterred from coming home by concerns over his safety, was greeted at the airport by about 5,000 cheering supporters.
"I love Thaksin like a father - I think I can die for him," said Udomlak Chanma (45), a vendor.
"He is the people's prime minister."