(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-03-12 14:42

BANGKOK -- Ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra pleaded not guilty Wednesday before the Supreme Court in one of two criminal corruption cases against him.

More than 200 policemen with bomb detectors and five sniffer dogs were deployed around the court where some 400 of Thaksin's supporters waited, many holding portraits of the former leader over their heads.

Deposed Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra gestures after speaking to the media in Bangkok, Thailand March 6, 2008. A spokesman of Thaksin says he will be allowed to leave the country Thursday, March 13, 2008, for a four-week trip to England despite a pending corruption case against him. [Agencies]

"The defendant pleaded not guilty of the charges," chief judge Thongloh Chom-ngam told the court, which set the next hearing for April 29. It also excused Thaksin from having to appear at every hearing, as requested by his lawyer.

"We can prove our innocence," said Thaksin, who was ousted in a September 2006 military coup for alleged corruption and abuse of power.

When he emerged after the hearing, some of his supporters burst into tears while others cheered him, shouting "Thaksin, fight, fight."

"Never mind, everything will be OK," Thaksin told one female supporter who cried as she hugged him.

Thaksin's return has stirred the Thai political scene because of suspicions that he will seek a return to power and try to settle the score against those who deposed him.

He has insisted, though, that he has no interest in returning to politics and has said he plans to devote himself to charity work, sports and his family.

"Let bygones be bygones," he said Tuesday.

In the case that opened Wednesday, Thaksin faces conflict of interest and malfeasance charges related to his wife's purchase of a prime piece of Bangkok real estate in 2003. She bought the land from a government agency despite an anti-corruption law barring politicians and their spouses from doing business with state agencies.

In another case, he is accused of not declaring all his assets as required by political office holders. He has been granted bail in both cases. If convicted, he faces a prison term of up to 15 years.

The court session came just a day before he begins a monthlong trip to England to cheer on the English soccer team he owns, for which the court granted him permission Tuesday.

The court earlier granted Thaksin permission to leave Thailand on Thursday for a month, his spokesman said.

"Thaksin told the court he needed to go back to England to look after his soccer team and do some private business," said spokesman Pongthep Thepkanjana. Thaksin owns English Premier League soccer team Manchester City.

The court's secretary, Rakkiat Pattanaphong, said Thaksin must report back on April 11.

Thaksin, who became a billionaire in telecommunications, bought Manchester City during his 17 months of post-coup exile.

Thaksin, who was prime minister from 2001-2006, was abroad at the time of the coup against him and returned to Thailand on Feb. 28. A court dissolved his former ruling Thai Rak Thai party last year and banned him and more than 100 of its top executives from political office for five years.