Billionaire former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was yesterday released on parole after six months in detention, his first day of freedom in his homeland 15 years after fleeing in the wake of his overthrow in a military coup.
Thailand’s best-known and most polarizing premier, Thaksin has loomed large over politics during the years spent mostly in self-imposed exile to dodge jail for abuse of power, charges he maintained were cooked up by the country’s old guard.
The 74-year-old tycoon, whose family’s party is back in power, was granted parole despite having not spent a single night in prison for a sentence that had in August last year been commuted from eight years to one by the Thai king.
Photo: AFP
Due to health reasons, Thaksin was incarcerated in a luxury wing of a hospital, from which he made an uncharacteristically low-key departure before dawn yesterday, slipping out in a convoy of tinted-windowed vehicles that was chased by a phalanx of media that had gathered overnight.
Wearing a checked shirt, protective mask and with his arm in a sling, Thaksin was pictured in the vehicle beside youngest daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra, leader of the ruling Pheu Thai party, and arrived at his Bangkok residence 25 minutes later.
Thaksin made a dramatic return by private jet in August last year to a rapturous welcome from supporters, before being escorted away by police who saluted him as he arrived.
His homecoming coincided with ally Srettha Thavisin being elected prime minister that same day by a parliament stacked with lawmakers loyal to the military, prompting speculation Thaksin had negotiated a deal with the powerful enemies who toppled three Shinawatra governments in eight years.
His allies have denied any such pact.
Thaksin’s return and early release has been controversial, with widespread skepticism about the extent of his health problems and his relatively mild punishment.
“Very sick? Parole? What disease?” Thai Senator Somchai Swangkarn wrote on social media with pictures of Thaksin leaving hospital and the hashtag “RIP Thai justice.”
The opposition Move Forward Party said it was undeniable Thaksin had received unfair treatment in the past, but providing justice to him “should not be in a way that emphasizes double standards ... or gives certain individuals privileges above the law.”
Thaksin’s release had long been anticipated and the focus will now shift to whether the tycoon stays true to his word regarding his retirement.
“He certainly will have some influence. Now, to what extent? He’s not calling the shots the same way he used to,” political analyst Thitinan Pongsudhirak said.
“Thaksin will be on a leash because the newly aligned centers of power, they don’t trust him,” he said. “I’m sure that the back channels will make it very clear that if he reneges on the deal, there’ll be trouble.”
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
RSS