By Thai Newsroom Reporters
IN A SURPRISE MOVE, a globetrotting Thaksin Shinawatra has offered to put himself behind bars in his home country to end his 16 years of self-exile overseas.
In an interview with Kyodo News in Tokyo, Thaksin, viewed as the de facto Pheu Thai boss, said he has made up his mind to get himself in jail upon a planned return to Thailand later this year.
The former prime minister, who was deposed in the 2006 coup and has been living in self-exile abroad since, told Kyodo News that he would ultimately prefer to spend the rest of his life with his grandchildren and other family members after he has served 10 years in prison due to three separate, convicted lawsuits.
Thaksin confirmed his planned homecoming and imprisonment will occur some time this year, regardless of the results of the May 14 general election in which the Pheu Thai has looked to score a landslide victory.
Thaksin has earlier aired his intention to not seek legislation which might possibly bring amnesty or pardon for his court-sentenced imprisonment.
However, the de facto Pheu Thai boss stopped short of saying how soon he will return to his home country to be immediately put in jail.
Thaksin has been earlier sentenced by court to a total of 10 years in prison, including five years for the conviction for having concealed Shin Corporation shares with the use of business nominees and hidden interest in telecom projects run by state agencies, three years for the convicted misconduct involving Exim Bank’s four billion baht loan provided for a previous Myanmar government in exchange for Shin Satellite projects and two years for the convicted malfeasance over a two-digit and three-digit government lottery project.
One other lawsuit in which the court had sentenced him to two years in jail for convicted malfeasance in relation to his former spouse’s purchase of Ratchada land has been automatically lifted due to the end of its litigation period.
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Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Top photo: BBC, Front Page photo: VOA
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