Ousted Thai PM misses flight home

Ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will not return home again, a pro-Thaksin MP said yesterday, suggesting the telecoms billionaire who was removed in a 2006 coup had flown into exile in London.

If true, Mr Thaksin's decision to flee rather than fight a string of highly divisive corruption trials could mean the beginning of the end of the political turmoil that has dogged Thailand's government and markets for the last three years.

"If Thaksin really doesn't come back, the conflict in our country will lessen, which implies that our prolonged political trouble will come to an end soon," Kavee Chukitkasem, head of research at Bangkok brokerage Kasikorn Securities, said.

"The markets should definitely rise tomorrow," he added.

Mr Thaksin had been due to return yesterday from the Olympic Games opening ceremony in Beijing along with his wife, Potjaman, who was found guilty last month of tax fraud and sentenced to three years in jail.

However, two airline industry sources said the couple had never got on the plane.

Minutes later, Pracha Prasobdee, a member of the pro-Thaksin party that won the post-coup election in December, told reporters at the airport: "He will not return to Thailand again".

The couple had been due to appear at around 10 a.m. (0300 GMT).