The National Anti-Corruption Commission resolved to investigate several government officials accused of allowing Thaksin Shinawatra to stay at hospital instead of prison.
NACC secretary-general Sarote Phuengramphan said on Monday that the commission reached the resolution in response to an accusation that officials at the Department of Corrections and Police General Hospital sent Thaksin to Police General Hospital so that he did not have so serve his term in prison.
According to the accusation, Thaksin was allowed to stay at Police General Hospital for 180 days although he was not seriously ill.
The NACC had found enough facts, witnesses and evidence to conduct the investigation and thus resolved to proceed with the case, Mr Sarote said. The investigation would focus on 12 officials at the Department of Corrections and the Police General Hospital, he said.
Thaksin returned to the country on Aug 22 last year after 15 years in self-imposed exile.
On that day, he was taken to the Supreme Court, which sentenced him to eight years in prison in three cases. That sentence was later reduced to one year by royal clemency.
On his first night at Bangkok Remand Prison, doctors determined he should be transferred to the hospital because he was suffering from chest pain, hypertension and low blood oxygen levels.
Thaksin was legally permitted to receive treatment outside prison for 120 days, but the Department of Corrections allowed him to continue his hospital stay beyond Dec 22.
Thaksin was paroled and discharged from the hospital on Feb 18.
The former prime minister formally completed his one-year prison term on Aug 31 this year.
