By Thai Newsroom Reporters
THE “UNTOUCHABLE” DE FACTO PHEU THAI boss-cum-convict at large Thaksin Shinawatra will likely be released on parole on Feb.18, a police source said today (Feb.6).
The deposed prime minister is now expected to be released on parole after he has spent more than five months for medical treatments of his mystery-shrouded “illnesses” at Police Hospital instead of being literally put behind bars at Bangkok Remand Prison to serve a curtailed, one-year jail term for convicted misconduct perpetrated during his previous premiership.
Justice Minister Thawee Sodsong declined to either confirm or deny news reports that the de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict at large will be released on parole on Feb.18, saying the matter depends on a decision made by a 19-person government committee in charge of granting paroles.
Thawee commented that Thaksin has already practically spent half of his jail sentence at Police Hospital though he may have been basically supposed to be put behind bars at Bangkok Remand Prison since he returned from self-exile abroad last August.
According to the justice minister, Thaksin might possibly be held in custody somewhere pending a questioning of him on lese majeste charges by the Technology Crime Suppression Division police and the Office of the Attorney-General’s public prosecutors after he has been released on parole.
The de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict at large has been earlier accused of making verbal statements tantamount to lese majeste content whilst he was residing in self-exile overseas.
If convicted as guilty of violating the draconian lese majeste law, also known as Section 112 of the Criminal Code, the defendant could possibly be sentenced to a range of three to 15 years in jail.
Armed with a cellphone available for use in his tight-security private ward at the hospital, Thaksin allegedly took his part in the power play over last year’s setup of a Pheu Thai-led coalition government and allocation of cabinet portfolios among coalition partners.
The medical expenses at the hospital for the billionaire, politically powerful Thaksin have been covered with the taxpayers’ money by the National Health Security Office.
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De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra. File photo above: Thai Rath, Front Page: Naewna
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