Five million Thais sign up for Thaksin pardon - organisers

By Kittipong Soonprasert

BANGKOK (Reuters) - "Red-shirt" supporters of former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra ended a rally in Bangkok on Saturday, claiming more than 5 million signatures for a petition seeking royal clemency for the fugitive billionaire.

Demonstrators from the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) rallied overnight near Bangkok's Grand Palace to support an appeal to King Bhumibol Adulyadej to allow Thaksin to return from exile a free man.

Nattawut Saikeu, a UDD leader, told supporters that 5,411,928 people had signed the petition by the time it closed at midnight on July 31.

"This is the fight to bring back democracy to the people and we will win in the end ... We do not care if we are to die or be put in jail," he told the crowd.

Thaksin won landslide election victories in 2001 and 2005 but was overthrown by the military in a 2006 coup. He was found guilty of corruption last October and sentenced in absentia to two years in prison.

He denies the charges and still commands a loyal following, especially among the rural poor.

Thaksin called in to the rally late on Friday and thanked all those who had signed the petition.

"I hope I can be among you soon. I am 60 this year and it is my hope that I can return home when I turn 61," Thaksin told the cheering crowd estimated at about 30,000.