Justice Ministry accused of granting undue privileges to Thaksin

By Thai Newsroom Reporters

THE MINISTRY OF JUSTICE was today (Aug.24) taken to task for allegedly granting undue privileges for de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra as a convicted inmate who was physically put behind bars for barely a half day.

A group of street activists led by the so-called Students and People’s Network for Thailand’s Reform peacefully demonstrated outside the headquarters of the Ministry of Justice in protest of the agency whom they accused of practising double standards by providing undue privileges for the deposed prime minister who returned on Tuesday from 17 years in self-exile abroad after he had been deposed in the 2006 coup and sentenced in absentia by court to eight years in jail for a few separate cases of misconduct perpetrated during his premiership nearly two decades ago.

The alleged double standards practised by the Corrections Department under care of the Ministry of Justice to satisfy the desires of the de facto Pheu Thai boss regardless of the law under which he should have been treated like other inmates were unduly compromising the country’s judicial integrity, the anti-Thaksin activists said.

While residing abroad shortly before flying a private jet to Bangkok, Thaksin had had pictures of himself alongside visiting family members posted on social media to supposedly show he was strong and healthy but was suddenly reported of illnesses and transferred in the middle of Tuesday night from Bangkok Remand Prison to Police Hospital after he had stayed at a nursing unit in the premises of the prison for barely a half day. The activists charged that the de facto Pheu Thai boss had feigned his way out of the prison.

Thaksin could probably be preoccupied with the unfinished allocation of cabinet portfolios following Tuesday’s successful naming of Pheu Thai candidate for prime minister Srettha Thavisin, personally associated with his sister/deposed prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

In a security-tightened room at the hospital, the de facto Pheu Thai boss may have access to a cellphone with which he could literally play his part in the purely political business from his hospital bed. Under no circumstances is a cellphone allowed for use by inmates in prison.

CAPTIONS:

Top: Pheu Thai de facto boss Thaksin Shinawatra giving a “wai” upon reaching Thailand on Tuesday Aug. 22, 2023. Photo: Thai Rath

First insert: An activist holding a placard that says, “In jail for only a day.” Photo: Thai Rath

Second below: Incoming Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin. Photo: Thai Rath

Front Page: Thaksin Shinawatra at Don Mueang Airport after his arrival on Tuesday. Photo: Naewna

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