A court in Thailand is to confiscate frozen assets worth €1.03bn from former prime minster Thaksin Shinawatra.
The amount seized is more than half his fortune but €660m less than the maximum allowed.
Mr Thaksin's assets have been frozen since the coup that removed him from office four years ago. He used a video speech from exile in Dubai to criticise the ruling.
He said: 'This case is very political. The court was used to get rid of a politician. The ruling will be a joke for the world.'
The nine judges ruled that Mr Thkasin could hold on to wealth they said he had accumulated before taking office in 2001.
In their ruling the judges said: 'To confiscate all of the wealth of Thaksin is unfair to Thaksin.
'But as he was a state official and unconstitutionally held shares in a company that received concessions from the state, he has abused his authority.'
The government had applied for the seizure of the proceeds from the sale of shares owned by Mr Thaksin and his family to Singapore-based Temasek holdings.
The Supreme Court ruled that Mr Thaksin could hold on to the stock value of his company before he became prime minister in February 2001, which they said was worth 30.2bn baht (€673m).
