Thailand's Supreme Court strips a former prime minister of a big slice of his vast wealth

THE wheels of justice move slowly in Thailand. But when they do, it has become clear that a former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, and his allies are often disappointed. On Friday February 26th, the country’s Supreme Court ruled on 76 billion baht ($2.3 billion) in frozen accounts that belong to Mr Thaksin and his family. At least 46 billion baht now belongs to the state, with the rest to be returned to the ex-leader. But the partial victory may ring hollow for the dispossessed tycoon. The judges decided that Mr Thaksin had concealed his stake in the family conglomerate, Shin Corp, and boosted its bottom line with favourable policies. That goes to the heart of the main criticism against Mr Thaksin—that his meteoric political career was always in service of his own profits.

The verdict was keenly awaited, both by a government set on burying Mr Thaksin and his fervent red-shirt wearing supporters, who want to bring him back. Neither will be entirely happy. Supporters will complain that the courts are biased, while opponents fret that he could use his unfrozen funds to fight on. An unknown is the legal ramifications of the guilty verdict against Mr Thaksin. He was found to have changed the concession fee paid to the government by his family’s phone company and illegally used state money to finance the sale of satellite equipment to Myanmar. Such tricks allowed him to become “unusually rich” in office. More criminal charges may follow.

Mr Thaksin, who lives in exile in Dubai, argues that he was rich before he went into politics. The judges seem to agree, as the unfrozen 30 billion baht represents his family’s assets before he became prime minister in 2001. It was the sale of Shin Corp in January 2006 to Singapore’s Temasek Holdings that cooked Mr Thaksin’s goose. The sale was structured to take advantage of stockmarket rules that exempted capital gains tax, infuriating voters in Bangkok who had had enough of Mr Thaksin. Months of street protests and a botched election left an uneasy stalemate that the army broke by staging a coup in September of that year. The political wounds have yet to heal.

The seizure of Mr Thaksin’s assets is the latest judicial blow to a once-mighty empire. In 2007, the Constitutional Court dissolved his political party, Thai Rak Thai. A second party, which won a post-coup election, was disbanded the following year for campaign fraud. Mr Thaksin was also convicted in absentia in 2008 to two years in jail over the sale of government land to his now ex-wife, who is appealing a separate jail sentence for asset concealment. That the courts have spared Mr Thaksin’s sworn enemies, such as the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), the rowdy royalist group that occupied Bangkok’s international airports, infuriates his supporters.

Government officials insist that it is only a matter of time before PAD leaders get their day in court. But there is not much haste in their cases. Some have friends in high places. Moreover, Thai judges are not used to playing an activist role. Since 2006, they have had to weigh in on tricky political cases, even if they are ill prepared, says Duncan McCargo, a Thai expert at the University of Leeds. A backlash from the pro-Thaksin brigade is inevitable. The long-term solution is for Thailand’s political leaders to “talk to each other” and work together, if the nation is not to become ungovernable, he says.

To Thailand’s breathless press, Friday was “judgment day”, a decisive blow in a political war. In reality, the ruling is far from the final word. Mr Thaksin continues to protest his innocence and encourages his supporters to do the same. A mass rally is planned next month in Bangkok. Similar threats to mobilise supporters ahead of the court verdict fizzled, with only a flurry of small advance protests and a muted response on the day. Some momentum has been lost. But the red shirts have strong support in the north and north-east, where Mr Thaksin is still popular.

The current prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, cannot afford to rest easily. His government has held together for 14 months, which exceeds the tenure of the two previous pro-Thaksin governments. But he is overly reliant on the army and has yet to convince millions of rural and working-class Thais that he can do anything that Mr Thaksin did not do better. An election would settle the question of whether Thailand wants Mr Thaksin back, as he insists. Mr Abhisit says the country isn’t ready for elections. But sooner or later, he must face the electorate, if Thai democracy is to limp on.