Thaksin's wife pleads not guilty in Thai tax case

BANGKOK, May 14 (Reuters) The wife of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, her brother and her secretary pleaded not guilty today to tax evasion charges in a case which could finish off the charismatic billionaire politically.

Potjaman Shinawatra, flanked by her three children and the other co-defendants, told the judge in a pre-trial statement they were not guilty, their lawyer told reporters.

''They denied all the charges,'' lawyer Noppadon Pattama said after the pre-trial hearing at Bangkok's Criminal Court with 50 politicians of her husband's party outside to give moral support.

''Prime Minister Thaksin, who is in Europe now, told me yesterday to fight a good fight through the last court. He wanted us to use all the legal channels available,'' Noppadon said.

The court postponed the start of the trial to May 25 as the defendants asked for more time to gather evidence to counter charges filed by prosecutors in March, Noppadon said.

Potjaman, her brother and secretary, freed on 15-million-baht (435,000 dollars) bail, could face up to 14 years in jail in a case involving the transfer of shares in what is now Shin Corp, the firm Thaksin founded.

They face jail terms of between three months and seven years and fines of between 2,000 baht (57 dollar) and 200,000 baht (5,700 dollar) in the first case brought by investigators appointed by coup leaders eight months ago.

In November, graft investigators ordered the Revenue Department to tax her brother Bannapot almost 15 million dollar on 4.5 million shares he bought from a Shinawatra maid with money given to him by Potjaman in 1997.

The investigators ruled the deal, decreed tax-free at the time as a gift on a special occasion, was a handout by Potjaman to her brother, then chairman of what is now Shin Corp, and must be taxed.

A verdict of not guilty against her brother and her secretary would undermine seriously the military leaders who staged a bloodless September coup accusing him of presiding over rampant corruption.

Reuters AB GC1619