Thailand’s ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra meets conditions for a royal pardon under clemency for the queen’s birthday, says the justice minister.
BANGKOK: Thailand’s former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has met the conditions for a royal pardon as part of clemency measure marking the queen’s birthday, the justice minister said on Wednesday.
Thaksin, 76, served eight months of a one-year sentence for corruption and abuse of power before he was released on parole last month due to his age.
The Department of Corrections said the ex-premier was required to wear an electronic monitoring device as a condition of his release.
Justice Minister Rutthapon Naowarat said Wednesday that Thaksin was among those eligible for the latest royal clemency measure.
“He is on the list,” Rutthapon told reporters at a royal ceremony.
“He had less than one year remaining of his sentence.”
Thaksin’s lawyer Winyat Chatmontree told AFP a government committee would still need to decide whether his monitoring device would be removed.
Thailand regularly grants royal pardons to prisoners with good conduct to mark major royal occasions, including the birthdays of the king and the queen.
Thaksin is one of the most influential figures in modern Thai politics and served two terms as prime minister.
His second term was cut short by a military coup in 2006, after which he spent more than a decide in exile before returning to Thailand in 2023.
His Pheu Thai party, and its earlier iterations, was Thailand’s most successful political party of the 21st century, with the Shinawatra family producing four prime ministers and drawing widespread support from the rural masses.
But Pheu Thai had its worst election result ever in February, slipping to third place and raising questions about the future of Thaksin’s political machine.
