BANGKOK: A Thai court has dismissed a royal insult case against former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, stemming from a 2015 media interview he gave during his long stint in self-imposed exile.
The case was brought by the country’s royalist military that ousted both Thaksin and his sister Yingluck Shinawatra from power in coups in 2006 and 2014, respectively.
Thaksin, 76, had faced a jail term of up to 15 years over accusations that he had breached the country’s strict lese majeste laws shielding the royal family from abuse and criticism.
The tycoon, who appeared at the court with a yellow necktie, the colour associated with Thailand’s monarchy, had denied wrongdoing. He has repeatedly pledged allegiance to the king, who is enshrined in the Thai constitution as being in a position of “revered worship”, with the palace seen by royalists as sacrosanct.
Although he has no official role in government, Thaksin remains politically active and is widely seen as the power behind the ruling Pheu Thai party, which is losing popularity and hanging on by a thread over the conflict with neighbouring Cambodia and a stuttering economy.
Thaksin returned to Thailand in 2023 after 15 years abroad to serve an eight-year sentence for abuse of power and conflicts of interest, which was reduced to one year by King Maha Vajiralongkorn.
He returned the day his family’s Pheu Thai party took office at the head of a coalition government backed by their conservative former enemies, fuelling suspicions a backroom deal had been struck.
He did not spend a single night in jail, however, and was transferred to the luxury wing of a police hospital on medical grounds, where he remained for six months before being released on parole.
Another court will decide 18 days later if the tycoon’s 2023 detention in a VIP hospital wing, instead of jail, means his prison sentence for abuse of power and conflicts of interest was not fully served.
