The Criminal Court has approved a request from Thaksin Shinawatra to temporarily leave Thailand, with a 5-million-baht cash surety to guarantee his return.
The court on Friday granted the former prime minister permission to travel to Malaysia on Sunday and Monday.
Thaksin designated himself and Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa as witnesses, backed up documents from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to confirm his need to go outside the kingdom.
The court ordered him to place 5 million baht in cash as bail. He was also asked to report back in person within three days after returning home, and to notify the Immigration Bureau when he entered the country.
“I am going for a meeting, not for a vacation,” Thaksin told reporters after leaving the courthouse.
His lawyer, Winyat Chartmontri, said Thaksin would attend a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Malaysia, which holds the Asean chairmanship this year.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim earlier appointed Thaksin as one of his informal advisers on Asean affairs.
The court hearing on Friday was Thaksin’s first application to go abroad since he returned home in August 2023 after 17 years in exile.
Thaksin was sentenced to eight years in jail — later reduced to one year by a royal pardon — on the day he returned to Thailand in August 2023. He never spent a night behind bars, serving his time at the Police General Hospital before being granted parole in February last year. A royal pardon last year made him a free man a few days ahead of schedule.
He is still facing charges of lese-majeste and Computer Crime Act violations and needs court permission to travel abroad. The court has scheduled seven sessions in July this year to hear testimony in the case, which arose from an interview he gave in South Korea in 2015.
