CHIANG MAI: Paroled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra said he hopes his sister Yingluck Shinawatra can return to the country this year, and he is figuring out how she will make it.
Thaksin said during his visit to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep in the northern province on Sunday that before he arrived in Chiang Mai, Yingluck extended her best Thai New Year wishes to him and he told her they should be able to make merit together in Chiang Mai during the Songkran festival next year.
Thaksin, 75, who was paroled in February, said that he hoped Yingluck could return this year and he would study possible ways to make it happen.
Yingluck was likely to feel lonely abroad and she wanted to return, Thaksin said about his 57-year-old sister.
Yingluck's case was not as complicated as his own, Thaksin said, because there was only one (legal) issue for her.
Regarding her expected return, Thaksin said he would have answers for the "majority of the society" and opposition from the "minority" would be normal.
He made the remark after being asked if he would face criticism for working to bring Yingluck back after his own return.
The Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Persons Holding Political Positions on Sept 27, 2017 sentenced Yingluck to five years in jail for failing to stop fake and corruption-plagued government-to-government sales of rice from her government's rice-pledging scheme.
The court pronounced judgement in Yingluck's absence. The announcement was postponed from Aug 25, 2017 after she failed to appear. A warrant was subsequently issued for her arrest.
Yingluck was reported to have fled the country to meet Thaksin in Dubai before the court delivered its decision.
In December last year the Supreme Court acquitted Yingluck of malfeasance in her 2011 transfer of a National Security Council secretary-general.
Last month the Supreme Court acquitted her of malfeasance and collusion in the awarding of a 240-million-baht campaign to promote her government's 2-trillion-baht infrastructure projects.