Thaksin's ex-wife returns to Thailand: minister

BANGKOK (Reuters) - The former wife of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra returned to Thailand on Friday, a deputy minister said, nearly four months after she fled into exile to avoid corruption cases.

"I was informed that she has arrived," Deputy Commerce Minister Songkram Kitlertpairoj told reporters after Potjaman Shinawatra avoided a horde of media waiting at Bangkok's international airport.

She sped off in a car for an undisclosed location in the Thai capital, Channel 3 TV said.

Despite several arrest warrants, police did not detain Potjaman because her appeal against a 3-year jail sentence for tax evasion was still ongoing, police told Channel 3.

Potjaman's return from exile is the latest twist in Thailand's three-year old political crisis, which has pitted Bangkok's royal and military elites against Thaksin, ousted in a 2006 coup, and his allies in the current government.

In the latest escalation, protests by the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) shut down Suvarnabhumi international airport for a week.

Thaksin remains in exile, but his whereabouts are unknown. The couple lost their London base after Britain revoked their visas.

They divorced in November after 32 years of marriage, but there has been no explanation for the shock separation.

Potjaman was convicted in July on charges of colluding with her secretary and brother to evade $16 million in taxes on a transfer of shares in Shin Corp, the telecoms firm Thaksin founded.

The trio were freed on bail of 5 million baht ($127,700) each.

In August, Thaksin and Potjaman skipped bail and went into exile, saying they could not get a fair trial in Thailand.

Thaksin, who won two landslide election victories but was ousted after being accused of graft and abuse of power, was sentenced to 2 years in jail in October on conflict of interest charges related to a land deal.

Anti-graft investigators have also seized nearly $2 billion of his money in Thai bank accounts, arguing Thaksin had illegally accumulated it while in office, a charge he denies. (Reporting by Nopporn Wong-Anan and Ploy Chitsomboon; Writing by Darren Schuettler; Editing by Myra MacDonald)