Bangkok - A military-appointed investigation into corruption charges against ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra wound up its work Monday, having forwarded four cases to the Supreme Court and 10 others to the counter corruption commission.

"Whoever does wrong, no matter how big he is, has to face the legal consequences," said Klanarong Jantik, one of 10 members of the Asset Examination Committee
(AEC), told a seminar Monday.

The commission was set up after the September 19, 2006, coup that ousted Thaksin, a billionaire businessman who was prime minister between 2001 to 2006.

The junta set up the AEC to pursue 24 corruption charges against him, but they were only able to conclude 14 of the investigations during the past 21 months.

Only one case, which charges Thaksin and his wife with abusing political power to purchase a 772 million baht (22.8 million dollar) plot of land in 2003 at a government auction, has reached the trial stage at the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Political Office Holders.

The court said it would hear witnesses on Tuesday, but promised to take months before reaching a verdict.

Thaksin's case suffered a blow last week when his main lawyer and two other legal assistants were jailed for six months for allegedly attempting to bribe court officials with a snack box filled with 2 million baht (58,997 dollars) in cash.

Three other AEC corruption cases have been passed on the Supreme Court, and 10 more were forwarded to the National Counter Corruption Commission.

Eight of the AEC members were appointed to a sub-committee of that commission.

"We can just continue working on the cases," said Klanarong. "There is no need to start all over again."

The AEC was criticized for taking too long in its investigations of Thaksin, and there are fears that now that a pro-Thaksin government is back in power the cases against him will be dismissed or fail to convict him.

One such effort to undermine the AEC's work failed on Monday.

A charge that it had continued the investigations illegally after a new constitution came into effect last year was overruled Monday by the Constitutional Court.

The court ruled the AEC had not violated the 2007 constitution. (dpa)