Ex-Thai PM Thaksin sentenced to 2 years in jail

Bangkok   :  Thailand's former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Thursday was in absentia sentenced to two years in jail for launching an illegal government lottery over a decade ago.

The Supreme Court judges in charge of criminal lawsuits against politicians ruled the former Prime Minister guilty of involvement in running the illegal two-and three-digit lottery, which allegedly incurred some $53.8 million losses between 2003 and 2006, Xinhua news agency reported.

Thaksin was ousted in a military coup in 2006 and has been absent from Thailand since 2008, when he fled the country to avoid serving a two-year prison on a conflict of interest conviction.

He was sentenced in April to three years' imprisonment for ordering Thailand's Export-Import Bank to make a loan to Myanmar, which was used to pay a satellite communications company once controlled by him and his family.