Indian millionaire charged with murder after ramming slow security guard

Local media reported that Mohammed Nisham, 39, rammed a 50-year-old security guard who later died in hospital

An Indian millionaire has been charged with murder after he deliberately rammed his car into his security guard.

Mohammed Nisham allegedly drove his Hummer jeep into a security guard, named only as K Chandrabose, after the man delayed opening the gate to the millionaire’s home in Thissur two weeks ago.

Mr Chandrabose, 50, succumbed to his injures yesterday. It is believed that he died of cardiac arrest after spending two weeks on life support.

Local news outlets reported that the controversial millionaire – a regular on India’s gossip pages – chased the security guard around a fountain in his car before battering him with an iron bar.

A Hummer car, pictured here in the US

Mr Nisham has now been taken in custody, police official Biju Kumar told the Mail Online.

The 29-year-old millionaire is reportedly facing several other criminal charges.

“We are planning to slap on him various provisions under Kerala Anti-Social Activities Prevention Act (KAAPA),’’ a police officertold the Indian Express. The warning is similar to a British ASBO and is more commonly used on members of local gangs.  

Mr Nisham is a well-known tobacco supplier, and has a hotel and jewellery business in the Middle East.

It is not the first time he has had a brush with the law. In 2013 he allowed his then nine-year-old son to drive his Ferrari. The incident was filmed by his wife and posted on social media, causing outrage.

In the same year he allegedly locked a female police officer in another of his cars after she pulled him over for a routine check.

The millionaire refused to allow the distressed officer out of the car after she entered to take the keys to prevent him driving away. Standing outside, he locked the car remotely and did not release the woman until the arrival of her colleagues.

Ash Wednesday 2015: What is it and why is it an important day for Christians?

Ash Wednesday is marked 46 days before Easter Sunday

Today is the first day of Lent – the period of self-restraint and abstention for Christians ahead of Easter.

What does the day signify?

It marks the first day of fasting, repentance, prayer and self-control. Luxury or rich foods such as meat and dairy are often avoided by those taking part in Lent.

Abstention from personal “bad habits” such as watching television or eating too much sugar is also commonly practised.

When is Ash Wednesday?

The day is marked on different dates each year. It falls on 18 February this year, the day after Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day.

Rich ingredients are traditionally used up before Lent on Shrove Tuesday

How is it celebrated?

During church services, clergy use ashes burned at the previous year’s Palm Sunday mixed with holy water or olive oil to mark a cross on a worshipper’s forehead as a sign of repentance.

This is to signify the Biblical passage in Genesis 3:19: “For dust you are and to dust you shall return.”

Why is it 46 days before Easter, and not 40?

Although Lent lasts for six weeks, Sundays are not included as they are considered a day for worship and rest.

Ash Wednesday is marked 46 days before Easter to imitate the full 40 days Jesus spent fasting in a desert before being blessed by John the Baptist.

Obama considers release of secret sections of report on Saudi Arabia ties to al Qaeda

Saudi officials have denied fresh allegations 

that senior figures supported Bin Laden's al Qaeda

The White House may declassify still-secret sections of an official inquiry into the 9/11 terrorist attacks which refer to possible Saudi Arabian support.

Questions over the 28-page section of the congressional report have been raised this week following the deposition of imprisoned former al-Qaeda operative Zacarias Moussaoui in which he claimed major Saudi figures were donors to his group in late 1990s.
Saudi officials have denied this.

According to White House spokesman Josh Earnest, US intelligence last year began reevaluating the decision to classify the section following a request from congress, though no timescale for the decision was given. Earnest said: "The United States and Saudi Arabia maintain a strong counterterrorism relationship as a key element of our broad and strategic partnership."

Moussaoui said a list of al-Qaeda donors that he drafted during Osama bin Laden's time at the helm included "extremely famous" Saudi officials such as Prince Turki al-Faisal Al Saud, a former Saudi intelligence chief. US officials familiar with the classified section of the report, in which the involvement of Saudi families in financing terrorism is examined, are torn as to whether it should be made public. Some have argued that it should remain secret because it includes material that had not been investigated enough, but others, speaking to Reuters on the condition of anonymity, have said there was no good reason not to have it released. People familiar with the report said most of the material that remained classified originated with the FBI. Read more: Convicted terrorist says Saudis funded al Qaeda Philip Zelikow, former executive director of the 9/11 Commission, a separate U.S. government inquiry into the attacks, said it was appropriate that the material was classified and there may still be reason to withhold it. "None of the people involved had been interviewed and many relevant documents had not yet been reviewed," Zelikow said.

South Korean prosecutors seek three years’ prison for ‘nut rage’ woman

Trial of Cho Hyun-ah hears the former Korean Air executive defend her tantrum over how she was served nuts on board plane.

 South Korean prosecutors have recommended three years in jail for the former Korean Air executive charged with endangering flight safety during a tantrum over how she was served nuts.

Cho Hyun-ah, the daughter of Korean Air’s chairman, has denied four charges. On the final day of testimony in a Seoul court, she defended her actions as the result of devotion to work and said cabin crew in first class had erred by not following proper procedures.

Cho ordered the chief flight attendant off a flight on 5 December after a heated confrontation, forcing the plane to return to the gate at John F Kennedy airport in New York.
A statement from one crew member described Cho as behaving like an “angry tiger” when she was offered nuts in a bag, instead of in a dish.

Park Chang-jin, the chief attendant, told the court he and others were treated like “feudal slaves” by Cho.
During the trial, Cho admitted using violence against one flight attendant by pushing her shoulder and throwing an object at her. Cho’s behaviour caused an uproar in South Korea.
The incident touched a nerve in a country where the economy is dominated by family-run conglomerates known as chaebol.

Prosecutors are also seeking jail sentences for Yeo Woon-jin, the Korean Air executive accused of pressuring cabin crew to cover up the incident and lie to investigators, and Kim Woon-sub, a transport ministry official accused of leaking secrets about the ministry’s investigation.
The three trial judges are expected to announce their verdicts before lunar new year holidays later this month.

Motorist sentenced to 14 months after driving wrong way around M25

Mitchell Locke, 20, also banned from driving for three years after extraordinary 10 minute journey into oncoming traffic in Kent 

Mitchell Locke has been banned from driving for three years.Photograph: Kent police/PA

A motorist drove the wrong way for nine miles down major roads including Britain’s busiest motorway.
Mitchell Locke was banned from driving for three years and sentenced to 14 months in a young offender institution after his black BMW was seen travelling in an anti-clockwise direction on the clockwise section of the M25 in Kent.
After leaving the motorway, the 20-year-old continued driving into oncoming traffic trying to join the A2, a major dual carriageway, before finally colliding with two other vehicles on a sliproad.

Much of the extraordinary 10-minute journey in September was captured on CCTV and Locke was sentenced at Dartford and Gravesham magistrates court after pleading guilty to dangerous driving.
Police said it was remarkable that no one was hurt.
Sgt Rob Dell said: ‘”For around 10 minutes, Locke travelled in the wrong direction on a major motorway and a major dual carriageway.
“Where there was no hard shoulder, he would move out into the live carriageway into oncoming traffic. It is remarkable there were no serious injuries.”
He said reports of a vehicle driving the wrong way on the M25 near junction 4 began coming in shortly before 2.30pm on 4 September.

“People were calling 999 to tell us drivers were having to move out of the way of the ongoing car,” he said.
“The vehicle came off the motorway at junction 3, the Swanley interchange, then rejoined the carriageway and continued the wrong way to junction 2.
“Still against the flow of traffic, the BMW came off at the Darenth interchange and continued the wrong way by heading east, towards Canterbury, on the London-bound A2.
“The car exited at the busy Bean interchange, heading into oncoming traffic trying to join the A2. Finally, on the sliproad at 2:39pm, the BMW collided with a Suzuki Swift and a Nissan Leaf.”
Locke, of Kenley in south London, will have to take an extended driving test before he is allowed to get behind the wheel again.

Original Resources: Click Here

TelexFree Owners Carlos Wanzeler And James Merrill Charged With Conspiracy To Commit Wire Fraud

Federal authorities in the USA may be hard-pressed to arrest TelexFree Inc. co-owner Carlos Wanzeler, who apparently fled to Brazil, a country that is not compelled to turn over its citizens to the United States when they are accused of crimes here.
Wanzeler, 45, is believed to have left his home in Northborough for Brazil by way of Canada, according to officials briefed on his disappearance. He had nearly four weeks to go missing, from the time federal agents raided TelexFree’s Marlborough office in April until last Friday, when Department of Homeland Security investigators arrested Wanzeler’s business partner, James Merrill, on Route 9 in Worcester.
Wanzeler and Merrill, 53, were both charged Friday with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Their company, TelexFree, sold Internet phone-service plans but grew into a global, billion-dollar pyramid scheme, prosecutors alleged, by luring thousands of people around the world to invest in the company.
Merrill is in custody, with a detention hearing scheduled for Friday in Worcester. But Wanzeler, who has dual US-Brazil citizenship, is a fugitive, according to the US Department of Justice. A warrant for Wanzeler’s arrest was issued last Friday.
Wanzeler’s lawyer, Paul Kelly, said Monday, “We are aware of recent legal developments and are evaluating the appropriate actions to be taken on behalf of Mr. Wanzeler.”
If convicted, Merrill and Wanzeler could each face up to 20 years in prison. It’s a long way from the 1990s, when the two men met as Wanzeler and his family sought work at Merrill’s cleaning business. The pair went on to become business partners in commercial cleaning and then moved into a series of telecommunications businesses.
Last month, state and US securities regulators filed civil fraud charges against TelexFree and its principals, just days after the company sought federal bankruptcy protection. The Securities and Exchange Commission froze the assets of the company and its top people, after one executive during the raid tried to leave with $38 million in cashier’s checks tucked in a bag.
Wanzeler’s flight to Brazil is just the latest frustration for participants in the TelexFree system who have lost money.
“It looks bad on the authorities if they completely lost him and he went to a different country,’’ said Katherine Aguilar, a 20-year-old Worcester student who had invested $2,000 in order to help pay for school. “It kind of makes you wonder, what are they doing? Don’t they keep close eyes on these people?’’
Brazil is not only Wanzeler’s native home but the center, in many ways, of TelexFree’s operation. A third partner who has not been charged in the case, Carlos Costa, lives in Brazil. And the company has targeted many Brazilian immigrants in its alleged scheme.
The Brazilian government has frozen about $350 million of TelexFree’s funds, Wanzeler told investigators at the Massachusetts Securities Division, according to the US attorney’s complaint against the company.
Records from the Brazilian Ministry of the Treasury show that TelexFree bank accounts in that country have received about $446 million in US dollars, according to the complaint. The ministry materials also showed that transfers were made from TelexFree bank accounts to Brazilian bank accounts belonging to Wanzeler, and from there to US accounts in Wanzeler’s name.
Last week in federal court, lawyers for Wanzeler and Merrill asked to have some of their assets unfrozen in order to meet their living expenses. Wanzeler’s lawyer, Kelly, also asked the judge to let him keep $3 million in a Singapore account rather than moving it back to the United States, arguing that the money was frozen so there was no need to move it.
However, Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton on Friday ruled that Wanzeler, Merrill, and their associates must repatriate any monies they have overseas that is related to TelexFree. He also ordered them not to open any new bank accounts or destroy any documents.
Source: Boston Globe

TelexFree Members Blame MLM Debacle On ‘Media Disinformation’; Judge Presiding Over SEC Case Receives Doodles

By PatrickPretty.com 11:35 am May 12, 2014

The PP Blog previously has reported on campaigns by members to petition judges to “bail out” TelexFree and consider the purported upside of the “program,” which may be the largest combined Ponzi- and pyramid scheme in MLM HYIP history. (Campaigns referenced in this May 10, 2014, PP Blog editorial.)
The docket of U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton of the District of Massachusetts now shows that members have written letters to the court in support of TelexFree. Gorton is presiding over the SEC’s civil case against TelexFree. The complaint was brought on an emergency basis on April 15. Assets of TelexFree and alleged managers and certain promoters have been frozen.
At least one TelexFree supporter contended in a letter to Gorton that he can “assure” the judge that “media disinformation” is responsible for the problems at TelexFree” and that the company “revolutionized” MLM in a manner that “put out of extreme poverty thousands and thousands of people around the world, if not millions.”
TelexFree, according to the sender, was like a drop of “heaven for poor families.”
Some of the letters appear to be in Spanish, sent to the judge via fax. Some are handwritten. Some are typewritten. A few of them include doodles.
There are letters from the United States. There are letters from the Dominican Republic. Some of the letters appear to have used a shared template, which likely means TelexFree upline/downline groups organized the campaign.
In the 2008 AdSurfDaily case, shared litigation templates were used by certain members who appeared to be more interested in advancing conspiracy theories than understanding the facts of the case. Some of the letters/emails of “support” submitted by ASD in 2008 were used by the government to undermine ASD’s assertion it was not selling securities and was not a Ponzi scheme.
At least one TelexFree member asserted in a letter to Gorton that the “program” gave him an opportunity to earn money from TelexFree by posting ads on the Internet.
On Friday, it became known that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was involved in an undercover probe of TelexFree that began at least by October 2013.
In a criminal complaint and affidavit filed in support of wire-fraud conspiracy charges against TelexFree figures James Merrill and Carlos Wanzeler, a DHS agent involved in the probe alleged an intelligence research specialist within DHS placed more than 700 ads for TelexFree online.
“The ads have resulted in no retail sales of TelexFree’s VOIP product,” the agent alleged.
And, the agent asserted, “the sites on which these ads were posted contained page after page after page of hundreds of nearly identical ads placed by various TelexFree promoters for the identical VOIP service.”
Zeek Rewards, an $850 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme shut down by the SEC in 2012, also had an “advertising” component. So did ASD, a $119 million Ponzi scheme shut down by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008.
MLM HYIP schemes have defrauded billions of dollars from participants in recent years. The combined hauls of TelexFree, Zeek and ASD alone may exceed $2.169 billion. That’s nearly double the size of the epic Scott Rothstein Ponzi and racketeering scheme in Florida in 2009.
MLM HYIP swindles typically are aimed at vulnerable populations, with MLMers who have big email lists and experience in one fraud scheme after another scoring tremendous windfalls.

Owners of TelexFree Charged in $1 Billion Pyramid Scheme

U.S. Attorney’s Office May 09, 2014

District of Massachusetts (617) 748-3100

BOSTON—James M. Merrill and Carlos N. Wanzeler, principals of TelexFree Incorporated and related entities, were charged today in a federal criminal complaint, charging them with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Merrill, 53, of Ashland, Massachusetts, and Wanzeler, 45, of Northborough, Massachusetts, were charged in a one count criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Worcester, Massachusetts. If convicted, each face up to 20 years in prison. Merrill was arrested today by federal authorities and made an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Worcester. A federal arrest warrant was issued for Wanzeler who is a fugitive.
United States Attorney Carmen Ortiz said, “The scope of this alleged fraud is breathtaking. As alleged, these defendants devised a scheme, which reaped hundreds of millions of dollars from hard working people around the globe.”
“I am very proud of the tireless efforts of my special agents. Investigating the flow of illicit money across U.S. borders and the criminal enterprises behind that money is one of our top priorities,” said Bruce Foucart, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations. “While pyramid schemes are nothing new, the potential scope of this case will hopefully serve as an educational lesson for all. The main point is clear—if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
According to the complaint affidavit, TelexFree Inc. and TelexFree LLC (collectively, TelexFree) provided voice-over Internet protocol (“VoIP”) telephone services, for which customers can sign up via a website maintained by TelexFree. It is alleged that TelexFree was actually a pyramid scheme and that between January 2012 and March 2014, TelexFree purported to aggressively market its VoIP service by recruiting thousands of “promoters” to post ads for the product on the Internet. Each promoter was required to “buy in” to TelexFree at a certain price, after which they were compensated by TelexFree, under a complex compensation structure, on a weekly basis so long as they posted ads for TelexFree’s VoIP service on the Internet.
It is alleged that the ad-posting requirements were a meaningless exercise in which promoters cut and pasted ads into various classified ad sites provided by TelexFree that were already saturated with ads posted by earlier participants. According to the affidavit, TelexFree derived only a fraction of its revenue from sales of VoIP service—less than one percent of TelexFree’s hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue over the last two years. The overwhelming majority of its revenue—the other roughly 99 percent—came from new people buying into the scheme. TelexFree was allegedly only able to pay the returns it had promised to its existing promoters by bringing in money from newly recruited promoters.
On or about March 8, 2014, TelexFree announced changes to its compensation system. On April 14, 2014, Telexfree filed for bankruptcy. In its filings with the bankruptcy court, Telexfree stated, among other things, that it changed its compensation plan “because questions were raised” about the prior plan and that, after changing the plan, the “discretionary payments...quickly became a substantial drain on the company’s liquidity.”
On April 16, 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission obtained a restraining order to freeze assets of Telexfree and eight related individuals. Since then, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has executed 37 seizure warrants for assets in the tens of millions of dollars.
It is further alleged that in 2013, TelexFree reported sales of $1.016 billion, while known sales of the TelexFree VoIP product represented less than 0.1 percent of TelexFree’s total revenues.
United States Attorney Ortiz, SAC Foucart and Vincent B. Lisi, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division, made the announcement today. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Cory Flashner and Andrew Lelling of Ortiz’s Worcester Branch Office and Economic Crimes Unit, respectively.
If you believe that you are a victim of the alleged TelexFree Inc. scheme, please send your contact information to the following address: USAMA.VictimAssistance@usdoj.gov
The details contained in the complaint affidavit are allegations. The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

From: FBI

TelexFree co-owner arrested in Worcester

By Priyanka Dayal McCluskey

  | GLOBE STAFF   MAY 09, 2014

James Merrill, co-owner of TelexFree Inc., the Marlborough company accused of bilking investors in an elaborate pyramid scheme, has been arrested, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz’s office confirmed today.

Authorities also have issued a warrant for the arrest of co-owner Carlos Wanzeler, who is now a fugitive, thought to have fled to Brazil amid a criminal grand jury investigation of the company​

Merrill was arrested by Homeland Security agents this afternoon on Route 9 in Worcester. Charges against him will be filed in U.S. District Court in Worcester.

Related

• 4/19: TelexFree rose from humble beginnings
• 5/8: TelexFree owner appears to have left US

An attorney for Wanzeler said at a hearing Wednesday that he didn’t know the whereabouts of his client, but it “wouldn’t terribly surprise anybody” if the TelexFree principal had traveled to Brazil recently. He said Wanzeler had dual citizenship in Brazil and the United States.

Regulators sued TelexFree and froze the company’s assets last month, alleging the business and its principals were operating an illegal pyramid scheme that may have raised more than $1 billion from people around the world.

The company allegedly recruited thousands of people to buy its Internet long-distance phone service and to open accounts that would pay them returns for helping post online ads for TelexFree. The apparent scheme may have cost Massachusetts investors $90 million.

Merrill and Wanzeler met in the 1990s, when Wanzeler and his family of Brazilian immigrants went to work for Merrill’s Ashland cleaning company, according to court records. In time the two became business partners and expanded into telecommunications.

Merrill, 52, lives in Ashland and still has his cleaning business, though it’s much smaller, he told state regulators.

During an interview, regulators grilled Merrill on various aspects of TelexFree’s website, including photos of him standing in front of their Marlborough building and one in Rio de Janeiro. In particular, they asked him about the claim on the site that he was an economics graduate from Westfield State University in Massachusetts.

Merrill told the investigators that was not true, that he had not finished school. He had tried to get his colleagues to correct the site, he said, “to no avail.”

Many of the alleged victims of TelexFree are immigrants from Brazil or the Dominican Republic, drawn into TelexFree’s marketing pitch by other members of their community who boasted of the huge sums they were making for the simple job of promoting an Internet telephone service that made calling overseas cheaper.

TelexFree filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Nevada last month. But a federal judge in Las Vegas sent the case to Massachusetts this week at the request of federal regulators.

Lawyers representing the company have argued in court that the company’s owners have a legitimate business selling Internet-based telephone service for long-distance calls and a mobile phone application to accompany it. They said TelexFree filed for

federal bankruptcy protection in Nevada last month so it can reorganize the business and generate more revenue for its participants.

But the SEC said in court this week that there is no meaningful business to speak of at TelexFree. “We believe there’s nothing to reorganize here,’’ said Frank Huntington, an SEC lawyer.

Huntington said that, by TelexFree’s accounting, the company has about $100 million in assets that could be available to creditors, most of whom are the company’s participants and promoters.

That figure includes $38 million in cashier’s checks the company’s acting chief financial officer allegedly carried with him last month as he attempted to leave TelexFree’s offices while federal agents were there seizing computers and records.

Related:

4/19: TelexFree rose from humble beginnings

5/8: TelexFree owner appears to have left US

Court forces out Thai leader, part of her Cabinet

Thailand's Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra
was greeted by supporters gathered outside
the Permanent Secretary of Defence office
in Bangkok on Wednesday.

By Thanyarat Doksone | Associated Press   May 07, 2014

BANGKOK — Thailand’s prime minister was ordered by a court to step down Wednesday in a divisive ruling that handed a victory to anti-government protesters who have staged six months of street protests — but does little to resolve the country’s political crisis.
The Constitutional Court found Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra guilty of abusing her power by transferring a senior civil servant in 2011 to another position. It ruled that the transfer was carried out to benefit her politically powerful family and, therefore, violated the constitution — an accusation she has denied.
The ruling also forced out nine Cabinet members but left nearly two dozen other ministers in their posts, including Deputy Prime Minister Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan, who was quickly appointed the new acting leader.
‘‘Transferring government officials must be done in accordance with moral principle,’’ the court said in its ruling, read aloud on live television for almost 90 minutes. ‘‘Transferring with a hidden agenda is not acceptable.’’
Smiling and looking relaxed, Yingluck appeared live on national television two hours after the verdict to thank her supporters, emphasize that she was an elected leader and assert her innocence.
‘‘We held true to the principles of honesty in running the country, and never acted corruptly, as we were accused,’’ said Yingluck, 46, who swept to power nearly three years ago as the country’s first female prime minister.
The judgment marks the latest dramatic twist in Thailand’s long-running political crisis. It was a victory for Yingluck’s opponents, mostly from the urban elite and those in the south, who have been engaged in vociferous and sometimes violent street protests demanding she step down to make way for an interim unelected leader.
However, the ruling leaves the country in political limbo and primed for more violence. Since November, more than 20 have been killed and hundreds injured in sporadic gun-battles, drive-by shootings and grenade attacks.
The court’s decision casts doubt on whether new elections planned for July will take place, which would anger Yingluck’s mostly rural supporters who have called for a major rally Saturday in Bangkok.
‘‘Today’s verdict is just a bump on the road of democracy, but we will still keep moving on,’’ said Jatuporn Prompan, leader of the pro-Yingluck Red Shirt protest movement. ‘‘Our stance has been clear ... if an illegal prime minister steps in, we will fight. If there’s a coup, we will fight.’’
It also remains far from clear whether her opponents will be able to achieve other key demands, including creating a reform council overseen by a leader of their choice that will carry out various steps to rid the country of corruption and what they claim is money politics, including alleged vote-buying.
Yingluck and her Pheu Thai party remain very popular among the country’s poor majority, particularly in the north and northeast. But she is despised by Bangkok’s middle and upper class as a puppet of her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, a former prime minister and polarizing figure.
Thailand’s political upheaval began in 2006 when Thaksin was ousted in a military coup after protests accusing him of corruption, abuse of power and disrespect for constitutional monarch King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
Thaksin’s supporters say the Thai establishment opposes him because their position of privilege has been threatened by his electoral popularity, cemented by populist programs that benefited the less well-off in the countryside.
Thailand’s courts, like its military, are seen as bastions of anti-Thaksin conservatism, and have a record of hostile rulings toward the Shinawatra political machine, which is fueled by a fortune Thaksin made in the telecommunications sector. Thaksin’s opponents, including those who have rioted and attacked police, destroyed public property and occupied government offices, have usually been treated leniently by the courts.
Analysts called the decision a damaging one for Thailand’s judicial system.
‘‘The credibility of the justice system has vaporized,’’ said Thongchai Winichakul, a professor of Southeast Asian history at the University of Wisconsin. ‘‘The royalist conservatives may celebrate this judicial coup. But the world will mourn over the death of another democracy.’’
In 2007, the Constitutional Court made a landmark ruling dissolving Thaksin’s original Thai Rak Thai party for fraud in a 2006 election, and banned its executives from politics for five years. Thaksin went into self-imposed exile in 2008 to escape a two-year jail sentence for conflict of interest while prime minister.
Thaksin’s allies in late 2007 handily won the first post-coup election, but the Constitutional Court in 2008 kicked out two successive pro-Thaksin prime ministers.
A coalition government then cobbled together by the opposition Democrat Party had to use the army to put down pro-Thaksin demonstrations in 2010 that left more than 90 people dead in street battles, but Yingluck and her Pheu Thai party won a sweeping majority in a mid-2011 general election.
Yingluck’s fortunes plunged when her party’s lawmakers late last year used shady legislative tactics to try to ram through a law that would have given an amnesty to political offenders of the previous eight years, including Thaksin. The move reignited mass anti-government demonstrations.
Seeking to ease the pressure, Yingluck in December dissolved the lower House and called elections for Feb. 2. But her opponents on the street disrupted the polls, which in turn were invalidated by the courts.