By Thai Newsroom Reporters
DE FACTO PHEU THAI BOSS Thaksin Shinawatra would be denied bail when he is brought to court under a lese majeste lawsuit next month, said a former MP today (May 29).
Thepthai Senapong said the billionaire, politically powerful Thaksin would be denied bail upon his appearance before the Criminal Court scheduled for June 18 and be immediately put in jail, pending time-consuming court proceedings based on the lese majeste lawsuit filed against him by the Office of the Attorney-General.
Thepthai, himself a former inmate who had been put in jail for 16 months due to court-convicted involvement in Nakhon Sri Thammarat provincial electoral rigging charges, said the Probation Department which is currently in charge of the de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict on parole will be legally obliged to detain him behind bars upon being formally charged in court with breaking the draconian lese majeste law, also known as Section 112 of the Criminal Code.
Though Thaksin had been released under bail in the lese majeste lawsuit earlier this year, such personal freedom would no longer be granted to him again on June 18, Theptai said.
Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether or how the billionaire, politically powerful Thaksin might possibly manipulate to keep himself from jail as he had earlier done so upon his return from self-exile abroad last August, he said.
Though the de facto Pheu Thai boss had been released on parole in a separate lawsuit leading to the royal pardon-curtailed, one-year jail sentence being served outside of a prison for a six-month period and finally granted parole earlier this year, he would no longer enjoy such contentious privileges in the wake of the lese majeste case, according to the former Democrat lawmaker.
Thaksin who unilaterally claimed to be currently infected with Covid-19, thus sparing himself today’s appearance at the OAG headquarters to hear of the lawsuit lodged against him had been earlier accused of feigning “critical illnesses” upon his return from self-exile abroad last August to keep himself from being literally put behind bars since.
Meanwhile, at Thaksin’s Chan Song Lah residence on the Thonburi side of the capital, some little-known and unknown persons were today seen getting in and out whilst one of his dark-windowed automobiles departed for an unknown destination.
Given the reported Covid infection, the de facto Pheu Thai boss who was anticipated to stay at home today had earlier evaded a legally-bound appearance before the Supreme Court during delivery of a verdict over the power abuse, misconduct charges which had originally landed him an eight-year jail sentence.
CAPTIONS:
Top and Front Page: De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra.
Insert: Former MP Thepthai Senapong. All photos: Thai Rath
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