Thaksin's wife returns to Thailand

BANGKOK, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- The wife of ousted Premier Thaksin Shinawatra has returned from exile to fight corruption charges in Thailand where a pro-Thaksin party has won elections.

Pojamarn Shinawatra was taken into custody Monday after arriving in Bangkok from Hong Kong, the Financial Times reported.

Her exiled husband remains in Hong Kong from where he is studying the situation in Thailand since the People's Power Party, a new version of his now defunct party, won a major victory in elections last month.

The party needs eight more seats for a majority to form a government.

Thaksin's wife, freed on bail, faces charges of malfeasance and conflict of interest in a property deal in 2003, the Times report said. Thaksin, deposed in a military coup in September 2006, also is accused in the same case.

He has said he would return to fight the charges after a new government is in place.

A family lawyer said his wife decided to return to participate in the national mourning over the recent death of the elder sister of Thailand's king and also to be near her children, the report said.