Formerly exiled billionaire freed six months into eight-year sentence due to age and health
Former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been freed on parole and returned home, six months after he was arrested on his dramatic return to the kingdom from 15 years of self-imposed exile.
The controversial billionaire, twice elected premier and ousted in a 2006 military coup, was jailed for eight years on graft and abuse-of-power charges after he arrived in Thailand in August.
But his sentence was cut to one year by King Maha Vajiralongkorn within days of his return and the government said last week the 74-year-old was eligible for early release because of his age and health.
Supporters of former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra arrange a giant portrait placard as they wait outside Klong Prem Central Prison in Bangkok
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Thaksin – wearing a neck brace and sitting next to his daughters Paetongtarn and Pintongta – was driven away early on Sunday from the police hospital in central Bangkok where he has spent the last half year.
A handful of people protesting his release had gathered in front of the hospital.
The car then drove to Thaksin’s home, where a welcome-home banner was tied across the gates.
The exact details of his release are not clear, but Thaksin may be subject to monitoring – possibly with an ankle tag – and restrictions on his right to travel.
The former Manchester City owner’s homecoming came on the same day his Pheu Thai party returned to government in alliance with pro-military parties, leading many to conclude that a backroom deal had been struck to cut his jail time.
The rumours grew stronger when he was transferred to a police hospital within hours of being sentenced because of his poor health. He was reportedly suffering from chest tightness and high blood pressure when he was admitted to hospital, and his family have said he underwent two operations in the following months.
The government has denied any deal and prime minister Srettha Thavisin, of the Pheu Thai party, has insisted “he already served his jail time” – although it is not clear that Thaksin has spent any time in a prison cell.
The former telecoms tycoon is one of the most influential but divisive figures in modern Thai history, loved by millions of rural Thais for his populist policies in the early 2000s but long reviled by the country’s royalist and pro-military establishment.
The tussle for dominance between the establishment and Thaksin and his allies has largely defined Thai politics over the past two decades.
Police laid lese-majesty charges against him last week over comments he made in South Korea almost a decade ago, although it is not clear whether prosecutors will take the case to court.
His critics suspected him of pulling strings in the kingdom even from exile, which he spent mostly in Dubai.
Thaksin’s sister Yingluck Shinawatra was elected prime minister for Pheu Thai in 2011, only to be ousted in a coup herself in 2014. His daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra, now the party’s chief, was one of the leading faces in its campaign for last year’s general election and has been tipped as a possible future prime minister.
The election last May marked the first time in more than 20 years that a Thaksin-linked party failed to win the most seats in parliament. Pheu Thai was beaten into second place by the upstart progressive Move Forward party (MFP).
But conservative forces in the senate blocked MFP’s leader, Pita Limjaroenrat, from becoming prime minister, and Pheu Thai’s deal with military-linked parties then shut the newcomers out of government.
Source: thegurardian
