Corrections Dept chief allows ‘sickly’ Thaksin to stay longer at Police Hospital

By Thai Newsroom Reporters

DE FACTO PHEU THAI boss-cum-convict Thaksin Shinawatra has been officially allowed to stay beyond a 60-day limit at Police Hospital, a partisan source said over the weekend.

Corrections Department director-general Sahakarn Petnarin has already allowed the “sickly” Thaksin to stay on at Police Hospital beyond the 60-day limit, which is otherwise scheduled to end tomorrow (Oct.22) though details of his “illnesses” have invariably remained a mystery to the public.

How much longer the de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict could possibly be allowed to stay at the hospital will primarily depend on decisions of the doctors who have been taking care of him, according to the department chief.

On August 22, Thaksin was reported in the middle of the night to have suffered from “illnesses” and was rushed from a nursing unit in the premises of Bangkok Remand Prison to Police Hospital after having stayed there for barely a half day upon returning from 17 years of self-exile abroad.

Given the prolonged stay at a tight-security, private ward of the hospital, armed with a cell phone and remotely helped by his right-hand-man Bhumtham Wechayachai, the “sickly” Thaksin was alleged to have taken part in power play over the setup of a Pheu Thai-led coalition government and allocation of cabinet portfolios among coalition partners.

He had been earlier sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison for three separate counts of convicted misconduct during his previous premiership. Given royal pardon, his eight-year jail sentence was curtailed to only one year with the probability of his being released on parole by early next year.

Meanwhile, a group of political activists calling themselves the Students’ & People’s Network For Thailand Reform alleged that the de facto Pheu Thai boss has only feigned illnesses to excuse himself from being put behind bars.

The anti-Thaksin activists are expected to gather at Police Hospital tomorrow with intent to visit him uninvited. But police said they were already poised to handle such an unbecoming scenario and will not allow the anti-Thaksin activists to disturb the “special” convict and other patients at the hospital, located next to the National Police headquarters.

CAPTIONS:

Top: De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra upon his return to Thailand on August 22, 2023, left, and being wheeled to undergo a CT Scan and MRI last week, right. Photo: Matichon

Front Page: Thaksin Shinawatra upon arriving at Don Mueang Airport on August 22, 2023. Photo: Thai Rath

Also read: Activists plan to visit Thaksin at hospital uninvited

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Thaksin moved to Police Hospital suite in the middle of the night