By Thai Newsroom Reporters
A DOZEN POLITICAL activists today (Feb.14) demonstrated outside Police Hospital in desperate protest of an imminent release on parole of de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict Thaksin Shinawatra.
The protesters, mostly being elderly persons led by the Students’ & People’s Network for Democratic Reform and the Centre for People in Protection of the Establishment, peacefully gathered on the road between Ratchaprasong and Pathumwan intersections near Police Hospital desperately calling on the Corrections Department to not release the de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict on parole, speculated on the upcoming Sunday, and to return him to Bangkok Remand Prison to serve the rest of his one-year jail sentence.
Crowd-control policemen stood behind makeshift barricades outside the hospital to keep the protesters at bay while their leaders launched verbal barrages against the “untouchable, privileged” Thaksin for allegedly staying above the law, flouting the country’s judicial system and encouraging the authorities to apply double standards in enforcing his jail sentence and granting him excessive privileges unprovided for other convicts.
The protesters who finally dispersed without an untoward incident had earlier planned to prolong the anti-Thaksin protest outside Government House until March 2, albeit practically to no avail.
According to Corrections Department director-general Sahakarn Petchanarin, the billionaire, politically powerful Thaksin was granted parole on grounds of his being 70-plus years old and having “critical illnesses”, the symptoms of which remain a mystery to the public.
On Sunday, the de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict, upon getting parole, is largely expected to return to his Chan Song Lah residence on the Thonburi side of Bangkok where he will be taken care of by his daughter/Pheu Thai leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra and surrounded by his grandchildren, among others.
Having roughly spent half of his curtailed, one-year jail sentence outside of the prison since he has been staying at the hospital for nearly six months now, the de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict was finally granted parole among a total of 930 convicts.
CAPTION:
Protesters rally outside Police Hospital against the upcoming release on parole of de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra. Photo: Matichon
Also read: No EM ankle bracelet for ‘untouchable’ Thaksin
PM reaffirms intention to complete full term
Journalist, photographer bailed out
Tawan carried to police van after being arrested with Frank
Thai travel industry urged to reduce usage of US$ for doing business
Panpree-Blinken hold talks on boosting strategic partnership
Pita suggests Plan B be applied in lieu of digital wallet project
Disabled elderly woman nabbed for selling drugs
First red-headed vulture chick hatches in the wild after over 30 years
One Reply to “Anti-Thaksin protesters desperately gather outside Police Hospital”