By Thai Newsroom Reporters
DE FACTO PHEU THAI BOSS Thaksin Shinawatra could possibly be imprisoned for longer than a year, given an additional lawsuit which might probably be filed against him pertaining to an alleged conspiracy over his thinly-veiled fakeout at Police Hospital over the last couple of years, according to a former senior government official.
The mega billionaire/power player could possibly end up in jail beyond his one-year sentence currently observed at Klong Prem central prison if he is finally found guilty by court of conspiring with a dozen government officials to take legal loopholes and grant himself the contentious privileges of staying in a premium ward of Police Hospital for a six-month period until he was released on parole early last year, thus keeping himself from being literally put behind bars for a single day upon his return from self-exile abroad in 2023.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission is currently taking steps to take legal action against those government officials of the Department of Corrections, Bangkok Remand prison and Police Hospital for their parts of the alleged conspiracy in favour of the de facto Pheu Thai boss and in which the then-convict at large would almost certainly be involved, according to former National Security Council secretary-general Paradorn Patanatabutr.
In a separate lawsuit, Thaksin and those government officials could possibly be found guilty by court and handed legal penalties which could possibly include jail terms.
In that case, the de facto Pheu Thai boss/father of the court-deposed former prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, could possibly be put behind bars beyond the one-year period which he is currently serving at the order of the Supreme Court judges in charge of criminal lawsuits against persons in political positions delivered last month, thus simultaneously subject to an additional jail sentence the period of which is yet to be determined by court.
Though a formal request may be filed by the Shinawatra family for Thaksin’s conditional release on parole in the next four to six months, such attempts could probably be denied by the Supreme Court, given his having once escaped from the country to become a globetrotter in self-exile over nearly a couple of last decades, Paradorn commented.
The Medical Council of Thailand had punished a few doctors attached to the prison and hospital for compromising their medical profession and abusing their judgments in undue favour of the then-convict at large and officially ruled that his truthful conditions had been by no means considered so clinically critical as otherwise claimed, thus negating the need for his medical treatment at Police Hospital in the first place, let alone for his staying outside of the prison for such a long time.
The de facto Pheu Thai boss had not only been accused of feigning to be a “critically ill” patient only to stay away from jail and be granted the six-month-long, privileged stay at Police Hospital but manipulated to turn himself into Mr. Fix-It who had distributed cabinet portfolios among coalition partners, allocated ministerial seats and had the Pheu Thai-attached Srettha Thavisin named prime minister following the 2023 election. To engage in his power play at the hospital, Thaksin had been practically free to use a cellphone – an apparatus legally prohibited for use by inmates anywhere.
Ironically, former army chief-turned-coup leader-turned-prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha who had staged the 2014 coup to depose Thaksin’s fugitive sister/former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra had managed to have an original eight-years jail term earlier handed out by court in his absentia curtailed under a royal decree to only one year which had not been literally served until he was finally returned to jail at the order of the Supreme Court earlier this month.
In another development, the Office of the Attorney-General is currently having an extended, one-month period from now until Oct.22 to decide whether to proceed with a separate, lese majeste lawsuit against Thaksin in the Appellate Court after it had been waived by the Criminal Court last month.
The de facto Pheu Thai boss had been accused of involving His late Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej in the 2006 coup which ousted him from elected premiership during his interview with a news agency in Seoul, South Korea, in 2015, barely one year after the Prayut coup which toppled his now-globetrotting sister.
The legal battle which is primarily based on the draconian lese majeste law, also known as Section 112 of the Criminal Code, and carries a maximum of 15 years in jail for the convicted, would likely be proceeded over a number of following years and could possibly not be concluded until it has been forwarded for final judgment of the Supreme Court.
CAPTIONS:
Top and Front Page: De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra. Photos – Thai Rath
Insert: Former National Security Council secretary-general Paradorn Patanatabutr. Photo: Naewna
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