Former Rak Thailand Party strongman Chuvit Kamolvisit was released from prison on Friday and vowed not to return to politics for fear of another visit to the cells.
The Corrections Department freed Chuvit from the department hospital in Chatuchak district, where his wife and daughters were waiting for him.
He was jailed at the Bangkok Remand Prison after the Criminal Court sentenced him to two years on Jan 28 this year for the demolition of the Sukhumvit Square night strip on Jan 26, 2003.
The overnight destruction of the site by hired thugs, some of them members of the police and armed forces, left hundreds of people without livelihoods. The area near Sukhumvit Soi 10 was to have been redeveloped for higher profit but Chuvit had a change of heart and the site is now a park that bears his name.
Chuvit, 55, is one of 30,000 inmates benefiting from a royal pardon granted by His Majesty the King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun on the occasion of his accession to the throne.
The former massage parlour tycoon turned politician qualified after spending at least one quarter of his term behind bars.
Chuvit told reporters after his release that he had no plan to return to politics as he did not want to risk future criminal charges.
Prior to entering politics Chuvit had amassed a fortune running a half-dozen massage parlours, each employing hundreds of women. He claimed that he paid 200 million baht in bribes to the police over 10 years to keep the businesses going.
He subsequently sold some of his massage parlours, formed his own party and ran unsuccessfully for Bangkok governor in August 2004. In 2005 he was elected for a four-year term to the House of Representatives, but in 2006 the Constitutional Court removed him from parliament.
In October 2008 he again ran for governor of Bangkok as an independent but was not elected. In the July 2011 general election his Rak Thailand Party won four seats in the House.