By Thai Newsroom Reporters
DE FACTO PHEU THAI BOSS-CUM-CONVICT Thaksin Shinawatra has already been granted parole, confirmed Justice Minister Thawee Sodsong today (Feb.13).
After spending half of his curtailed, one-year jail sentence accounting for a six-month period at Police Hospital since August, the de facto Pheu Thai boss is being released on parole among a total of 930 convicts, according to the justice minister.
Thawee said Thaksin has been granted parole due to his being over 70 years old and having “critical illnesses”, albeit shrouded in secrecy from the public.
The billionaire, politically powerful Thaksin is expected to return to his Chan Song Lah residence on the Thonburi side of the capital immediately after being released from Police Hospital where he has been staying for nearly six months now, according to Pheu Thai leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of the de facto party boss.
Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether the deposed prime minister might possibly be granted bail pending judicial proceedings pertaining to a separate lawsuit earlier filed against him on charge of having in 2015 made verbal statements in South Korea in violation of the lese majeste law, also known as Section 112 of the Criminal Code.
The Office of the Attorney-General is dutifully obliged to either proceed with the lese majeste case against Thaksin or waive it whilst the de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict is largely speculated to be released on parole on the upcoming Sunday or Monday.
Thaksin had been earlier convicted of a few counts of misconduct perpetrated during his previous premiership and sentenced in absentia to an eight-year jail term which was curtailed by royal pardon to only one year.
Nevertheless, the “untouchable” Thaksin has never spent a single day behind bars since his return from self-exile abroad last August and instead been provided a tight-security, private ward at Police Hospital from where he allegedly literally took part in the power play over the setup of a Pheu Thai-led government under party-endorsed Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who had been given hush-hush support by former prime minister/ Thaksin’s sister Yingluck Shinawatra.
CAPTIONS:
Top: De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra with an image of his daughter and party leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra inset. Photo: Matichon
Front Page: De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra. Photo: Thai Rath
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