DHAKA: Thailand’s junta-leading Army Chief has dismissed allegations he plotted to seize power for years before May’s coup, issuing an apparent rebuke to the leader of the protests that crippled the former government.

‘It is not true’ General Prayuth Chan-O-Cha said, addressing accusations that he had discussed uprooting the divisive Shinawatra clan from politics with firebrand protest chief Suthep Thaugsuban.

‘I did not join any process or take part with any side,’ General Prayuth said late on Friday in a weekly television address to the nation, The Straits Times publishes this report on Saturday.

While he did not directly reference Suthep, he was prodded into the denial after reports that the protest figurehead told a charity dinner that he had been in talks with the army chief since 2010.

BDST: 1852 HRS, JUNE 28, 2014