BANGKOK, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said ousted former Premier Thaksin Shinawatra could not be above law and must return to face his jail term, The Nation newspaper's website reported Wednesday.

    Speaking to a packed room of Thais in the United States, Abhisit said "he (Thaksin) committed a wrongdoing so he has to come back and pay the penalty. We are a forgiving society. But it is not possible for anyone to be above the law."

    Abhisit is in New York to attend the 64th Session of the UN General Assembly and the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh from Sept. 21 to27. He will join the G-20 Summit as the chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

    Ousted by the military coup on Sept. 19 2006, Thaksin was accused of corruption, and kept in exile since then. In February, 2008, Thaksin returned to Thailand to face corruption charges, but he later fled into exile again and was convicted in absentia.

    Abhisit said he (Thaksin) refused to face penalty, and instead, he held people hostage and used them for in his negotiations.

    Abhisit referred to the chaos during ASEAN Summit in mid-April in central resort town Pattaya when pro-Thaksin protesters invaded the Summit hall annex.

    The Thai government had to cancel the Summit and declared a state of emergency in Pattaya.

    Later the chaos spread to the capital Bangkok with the red-shirted protesters blocking many key areas and burning buses and tyres. The army then had to step in to disperse them under the state of emergency.

    Abhisit said he regretted about wrongly evaluating the rally situation. "My government initially felt it would be better not to have problems with any of the opposing groups. But the tension, which was instigated by some ill intentioned groups, led to the cancellation of the ASEAN Summit," he said.

    The Thai premier also referred to an audio clip, which was doctored to make people believe that he ordered killings during the chaos.