Thai Supreme Court on Thursday decided to begin its hearing on July 16 into the case upon seizure of former Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin shinawatra and his family's 76-billion-baht (about 2.2 billion U.S. dollars) asset, which has been frozen since the ex-prime minister was ousted in September 2006, Thai media reported Friday.

According to Bangkok Post online, however, the court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions, through a panel of nine judges, on Thursday rejected Thaksin's request for a proxy to deliver his opening statement orally; instead they insisted Thaksin file his opening statement in writing.

In an earlier decision, the defense request for Thaksin to give his statement via video was also rejected.

The case was filed by the Office of the Attorney-General when it petitioned the court to seize Thaksin's assets suspected of having been accumulated through conflicts of interest when he was premier from 2001 to 2006.

For the upcoming testimony, the court required the defense and prosecution to file respective lists of witnesses for examination and cross-examination 15 days before each hearing.

The defense is due to call 56 witnesses, while the prosecution will summon 58. Each side has about 25 court sessions.

Thaksin was ousted in a bloodless coup in September 2006 before he went into exile among countries. Under the charge of power abuse, the ex-prime minister was sentenced in absentia to two years in jail by Thai Criminal Court in 2008, and he also faced another arrest warrant for instigating unrest in Bangkok last week.

Source: Xinhua