Opponents of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra on Tuesday called on Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra to instruct state agencies to cooperate with an investigation into claims that her father benefited unfairly from special treatment in a police hospital during his prison term.
The protesters gathered at Government House and presented a letter demanding the prime minister step in and take action to ensure that any penalties against Thaksin are properly enforced.
Thaksin, 75, was sentenced last August to eight years in prison — later reduced to one year by a royal pardon — for abuse of power while in office from 2001-06. He never spent a single night in jail, and instead was transferred to Police General Hospital, where he stayed until he was paroled six months later.
Somkid Chueakong, deputy secretary-general to the prime minister, accepted the letter on behalf of Ms Paetongtarn, who is in Davos at the World Economic Forum meetings this week.
The protesters included former red-shirt leader Jatuporn Prompan and other prominent opponents of Thaksin.
In their letter, the protesters said the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) and the Medical Council of Thailand, which are investigating the case, have not received cooperation from the Department of Corrections and Police General Hospital.
The prime minister must order both bodies to cooperate by providing the information requested immediately, they said. They said she must also instruct the Department of Corrections to ask the court to issue a new order authorising the detention of Thaksin.
“The prime minister must separate her personal relations with Thaksin from her prime ministerial duties,” the letter said.
The NACC is investigating 12 officials from the corrections department and the police hospital who are accused of unfairly allowing Thaksin to stay at the hospital instead of in prison. The medical council has launched an investigation into the ethics of the doctors who were involved in treating Thaksin.
Inmates are legally permitted to receive treatment outside prison for 120 days, but the Department of Corrections allowed him to continue his stay at the hospital for 180 days, saying that conditions in jail could threaten his life.
Thaksin paid all the costs for his six-month stay, including a VIP room on the hospital’s 14th floor that cost 8,500 baht a night, a parliamentary committee was told in November.
A medical council sub-committee has demanded the hospital hand over full details of Thaksin’s medical records, including his admission, diagnosis and treatment, his transfer from the prison hospital, as well as the names of all the doctors who treated him.
The sub-committee is chaired by Amorn Leelarasamee, who is looking into allegations that Thaksin received preferential treatment.
Kaewsan Atibodhi, an academic and one of the protest leaders, called on Ms Paetongtarn to ensure the full weight of the law is enforced against her father.
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