Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been included in a royal pardon for prisoners and his parole will end on Sunday, his lawyer Winyat Chartmontri said on Saturday.
Thaksin’s parole had been due to end at the end of the month. The earlier finish comes as part of a general royal pardon for 7,500 prisoners with good conduct on the occasion of His Majesty the King’s birthday last month, said Mr Winyat.
The news comes a day after Thaksin’s daughter Paetongtarn, 37, became the youngest person ever elected prime minister of Thailand. She is also the third member of the Shinawatra family to hold the position.
Thaksin, 75, returned to Thailand last August after 15 years of self-exile, having jumped bail and fled the country in 2008, claiming he could not get a fair trial on various charges he said were politically motivated.
The day he returned to Bangkok, Thaksin was sentenced to eight years in prison — later reduced to one year under an earlier royal pardon — for conflict of interest and abuse of authority while in power from 2001-06.
He never spent a night behind bars but instead spent six months in Police General Hospital. He qualified for parole in February based on his age and health condition and the fact that he had served half his sentence.
One of the conditions of his parole was that he not engage in political activity directly. But the patriarch of the governing Pheu Thai Party has been very active behind the scenes … and then some.
A local media organisation has even been promoting a seminar on Aug 22 at which Thaksin as the keynote speaker will explain his “vision for Thailand”. That prompted a local commentator on X to suggest that he relinquish the podium to his daughter since the public is curious about the vision of their prime minister.
Thaksin’s legal troubles are not completely over, however. He still faces a charge of lese-majeste in connection with an interview he gave to a South Korean newspaper in 2015.
In the interview, the ex-premier claimed privy councillors supported the 2014 coup that ousted the government of his sister Yingluck.
Thaksin was released on bail on the charge. A trial date has not yet been set. He recently sought court permission to travel to Dubai — where he spent most of his exile — for medical treatment but it was denied.
