Anything about Thaksin’s surgery remains a mystery: Justice Minister

By Thai Newsroom Reporters

JUSTICE MINISTER TAWEE Sodsong today (Sep.21) admitted that details of a recent surgery of de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convicted inmate Thaksin Shinawatra at Police Hospital still remain a mystery to him.

Tawee told reporters he himself has not yet been officially reported of anything about the surgery on the former prime minister recently performed at Police Hospital whereas doctors have kept it undisclosed to the public and only remarked that his post-surgery condition has generally improved.

According to the justice minister attached to the Prachachart, nobody else apart from those physicians at Police Hospital seemed to know what part of Thaksin’s body may have undergone the reported surgery whilst privacy reasons may have been cited in relation to such a specific case.

Nevertheless, the justice minister said whether the de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convicted inmate could possibly be allowed to stay outside of Bangkok Remand Prison longer than one month would primarily depend on the relevant opinion of the Police Hospital doctors and that the Corrections Department would practically treat the “sickly” former prime minister accordingly with respect to the internationally-recognized human rights principles.

Tawee said he will definitely not interfere in the affairs of Corrections Department director-general Ayut Sinthoppand who would almost certainly endorse the extended hospitalisation of Thaksin outside of the prison beyond a one-month time as of tomorrow.

The Ministry of Justice undersecretary will be legally obliged to approve his hospitalisation for longer than 60 days whilst the justice minister himself will be bound to do so in case that it may consecutively take longer than 120 days.

Today marked a 30-day period since the de facto Pheu Thai boss returned from 17 years in self-exile abroad and was brought to a nursing unit in the premises of the prison where he had barely stayed for a half day before being rushed to Police Hospital in the middle of the night for “illnesses.”

The deposed prime minister had been earlier convicted in absentia of perpetrating misconduct in office and sentenced to an eight-year jail term which was finally curtailed under royal pardon to only one year with the probability of being released on parole around next February.

CAPTIONS:

De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra. Top photo: Thai Rath, Front Page photo: VOA

Insert: Justice Minister Tawee Sodsong. Photo: Matichon

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