BANGKOK, Feb 18 — Thailand’s convicted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was released on parole today, his lawyer said, starting a first day of freedom in his homeland, 15 years after fleeing in the wake of his overthrow by the royalist military.
The influential billionaire, whose family’s party is now in power in Thailand, was freed from hospital detention six months into a sentence for abuse of power and conflicts of interest that was commuted from eight years to one by the country’s king.
Reuters journalists saw Thaksin, 74, leaving the hospital in a black Mercedes van early today, wearing a green shirt and with his arm in a sling, sitting beside his youngest daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, leader of the ruling Pheu Thai party.
Thaksin was eligible for parole due to his age, health condition and time served and had been detained in hospital on health grounds.
The vehicle was seen arriving at the family’s Bangkok residence about 25 minutes later.
Paetongtarn shared a post by one of her followers on Instagram alongside an image of her in the vehicle with her father, which carried the message: “Thaksin has arrived home, hope he will have good health.”
His lawyer Winyat Chartmontri told Reuters that Thaksin had completed parole proceedings and was formally released.
Thailand’s best-known and most polarising premier, Thaksin has loomed large over politics for two decades, despite 15 years in self-imposed exile to avoid jail, charges he long insisted were cooked up by his enemies to keep him at bay.
He made a dramatic return from exile in August to serve his jail time and was met by cheering crowds and a media frenzy.
Thaksin was transferred to a hospital suffering from high blood pressure and chest pains on his first night in jail and has been detained there ever since.
He has been at the heart of a long-running power struggle in Thailand between warring elites, an on-off battle characterised by bouts of, at times, violent street protests by rival movements and the toppling of three Shinawatra-backed governments by court rulings and military coups.
Thaksin insists he has retired from politics.
— Reuters
