Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra paroled after serving six months in hospital

Thailand’s billionaire former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was paroled on Sunday after six months in detention, his first chance of freedom in his home country after 15 years on the run after he was ousted in a military coup. sky.

Thaksin, Thailand’s best-known and most polarizing prime minister, is so politically influential that he has spent much of his years in self-imposed exile to avoid jail time for abuse of power, charges he insists are It was fabricated by the country’s conservatives to keep him in Thailand. Bay.

The 74-year-old tycoon, whose family party returned to power, was paroled despite not spending a night in jail. In August, the country’s king reduced the sentence from eight years to one year. Due to health reasons, Thaksin was detained in a luxurious ward of a hospital. Before dawn on Sunday, he left the hospital in an uncharacteristically low-key manner and slipped out in a convoy with tinted windows. He was chased by a media phalanx and gathered overnight.

Wearing a plaid shirt, a protective mask and his arm in a sling, Thaksin was pictured sitting in a car with Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the youngest daughter of the leader of the ruling Pheu Thai party, 25 minutes later Arriving at his residence in Bangkok. Pichai Naripthapan, a government adviser and former energy minister, posted on Warmth.” Thaksin.

Thaksin has been at the heart of a two-decade power struggle between the Shinawatra family and its capitalist upstart clique, and the royalists, generals and old-money families who have long exerted influence over Thailand’s government and institutions.

dramatic return

Thaksin, the founder of a seemingly unstoppable political juggernaut who has won five of the past six elections, made a dramatic return in August by private jet to a warm welcome from supporters and then police He was escorted out and police officers saluted him upon his arrival.

His return comes on the same day that his ally Srettha Thavisin was elected prime minister by a parliament made up of lawmakers loyal to the military, fueling speculation that Thaksin has been linked to the ousted leader in eight years. The deal was negotiated by powerful enemies of three Shinawatra governments. His allies deny any such agreement.

Speaking to the media during a visit to the northeast on Sunday, Sretha said he was happy about Thaksin’s release, which was in compliance with the law. He said Thaksin was knowledgeable and popular. But his return and early release were controversial, with widespread doubts about the severity of his health problems and the relatively mild punishment.

“Severe illness? Speech? What illness?” Senator Somchai Swangkarn posted a photo of Thaksin discharged from the hospital on social media and tagged “RIP Thailand Justice”. The opposition Kadima Party said it was undeniable that Thaksin had been treated unfairly in the past, but that justice for him “should not be in a way that emphasizes double standards… or gives certain individuals privileges above the law.”

The anti-Thaksin Thai Students and People’s Reform Network went further, issuing a scathing condemnation of the government and hospital doctors, adding that “today’s events should have put you in jail, not Thaksin.” People had long expected him The letter will be released and the focus will now shift to whether the tycoon keeps the promises he made when he retired and whether he can resist the temptation to exert influence over a government now run by his family and allies.

“He will definitely have some influence. Now, to what extent? He is no longer giving orders like before,” said political analyst Thitinan Pongsudhirak. “Thaksin will be constrained because the newly aligned power centers don’t trust him,” he added. “I believe the back channels will make it very clear that if he reneges on the agreement, there will be trouble.”

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a Yonhap news agency feed – Reuters)