PAD spreads a pro-Thaksin coup rumour ...

Another coup rumour is in the air -- this time spread by a key leader of the seven-week-old anti-government protest.

Suriyasai Katasila, a core leader of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), claims this evening that a group of Class 10 graduates from the Military Academy ( Thaksin Shinnawatr's classmates), plan to stage a coup to protect the former prime minister from a series of upcoming court cases.

The PAD leader told reporters: "I have received sufficient information to believe that Thaksin's classmates who now hold some key positions on the army will stage a so-called self-coup so that they can stop the court cases from proceeding against Thaksin."

Suriyasai also claimed that hundreds of million of baht has been offered to prosecutors to drop injunctions against Thaksin.

He warned that the upcoming annual military reshuffle in October may witness officers opposed to the former premier reassigned to pave way for a pro-Thaksin alleged "self-coup."

Suriyasai did not say how he had obtained such information.