[JURIST] Prosecutors in Thailand have asked the nation's Supreme Court to seize over $2 billion from the frozen accounts and holdings of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] and his wife Pojamarn Shinawatra [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], who already forfeited nearly $400,000 when they fled to the UK while on bail from corruption charges. Earlier this month, the Court announced plans to try the two in absentia [AP report; JURIST report] after the couple refused to return from the UK and accused the Court of bias [JURIST reports] against them. Arrest warrants were issued [Bangkok Post report] when they failed to appear in court. The Thai government is reportedly seeking their extradition [Bloomberg report] from the UK. Xinhua has more. The Telegraph has additional coverage.

Last month, the Thai Attorney General's Office filed corruption charges [JURIST report] against Thaksin for his role in a 2003 resolution reducing fees paid by mobile phone companies to state telecommunications agencies. In April, Pojamarn pleaded not guilty to charges [JURIST reports] stemming from a 2003 agreement with the government-directed Financial Institutions Development Fund [official website] to purchase land said to be worth three times more than the $26 million she paid for it. Lawyers for Thaksin have been jailed [JURIST report] for attempting to bribe court officials in one of Thaksin's cases, and current Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej [BBC profile] is facing possible impeachment proceedings [JURIST report] due in part to his party's close association with Thaksin.

[JURIST] Former Pakistani prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) [party website] head Nawaz Sharif [JURIST news archive] on Monday followed through with threats [JURIST report] to withdraw his party from the coalition government. Sharif had set Friday as the deadline for the PML-N and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) to agree on the reinstatement of all of the judges ousted last year by President Pervez Musharraf [official website; JURIST news archive], who recently resigned [press release; JURIST report] from office. Sharif has focused his push for reinstatement on former Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry [JURIST news archive], and has said that he considers the Supreme Court as currently constituted to be illegitimate. Reuters India has more. AP has additional coverage.

Prior to Musharraf's resignation, Sharif had called for the leader to be tried for treason [JURIST report], labeling him a traitor disloyal to Pakistan and saying he should be punished for the "damage" done to the country in the years since his military coup [BBC backgrounder] unseated Sharif in 1999. In 2000, Sharif was convicted for his involvement in an attempt to prevent Musharraf's plane from landing in Pakistan during the 1999 coup. This conviction has been central to the litigation [JURIST report] determining Sharif's eligibility to run for office in the future.

[JURIST] Officials from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) [official website] said Friday that notes found in the clothes of three Guantanamo detainees who committed suicide [JURIST report] in 2006 indicated that they were seeking martyrdom. Military investigations of the suicides began [JURIST report] immediately after the two Saudi and one Yemeni men were found in their cells, and the military quickly rejected calls for independent civilian investigations. The military similarly rejected requests by the governments of Yemen and Saudi Arabia [JURIST reports] to reform the investigation process. The NCIS has now reportedly closed the investigation. AP has more.

Military officials said that the three detainees, who hanged themselves using nooses made from sheets and clothes, had participated in hunger strikes and were among those who had been force-fed [JURIST report]. None of the detainees had previously attempted suicide. Reacting to the deaths, rights groups condemned prisoners' continued indefinite detention at Guantanamo. Amnesty International [advocacy website] said the deaths "are the tragic results of years of arbitrary and indefinite detention" and should serve as "an indictment on [Guantanamo's] deteriorating human rights record." The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights [advocacy website], which represents several hundred detainees, called for the detainees to "be taken to court or released."

[JURIST] The Texas Third Court of Appeals [official website] has allowed money-laundering indictments to stand against two alleged co-conspirators of former US House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) [JURIST news archive], rejecting their argument that the state laws used to prosecute them were unconstitutionally vague or overbroad. The Austin-based intermediate appellate court on Friday affirmed [opinion, PDF] a trial court's denial of habeas relief sought by John Colyandro and Jim Ellis, who were originally indicted [JURIST report] in 2004. The defendants are accused of accepting $190,000 in illegal campaign contributions from corporations and transferring the money to the Republican National Committee [party website], which then allegedly donated the same amount to candidates for the Texas Legislature. The court concluded that restrictions on corporate campaign contributions in the Texas Elections Code [PDF, text] need not survive strict scrutiny, and Justice G. Alan Waldrop wrote:

[W]e believe that a person of ordinary intelligence is capable of intending and designating his or her contributions to a political committee to be for lawful purposes unrelated to supporting or opposing a political candidate. Whether misuse of such funds by the political committee or innocent redistribution of such funds for unlawful purposes may have implications for the contributor or raise additional constitutional concerns is not before us in this appeal.