[BANGKOK] Jailed former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was on Monday (Sep 15) moved to his prison’s medical wing due to his age and chronic health issues, a corrections department official told AFP.
Thailand’s Supreme Court last week ordered Thaksin, 76, to serve a one-year prison term after it ruled he improperly served a 2023 sentence in a hospital suite rather than a cell.
The telecoms magnate is one of Thailand’s richest people and most polarising politicians, the patriarch of a dynasty which has for two decades grappled with the kingdom’s pro-monarchy, pro-military establishment.
However his movement is flagging, with his daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra last month sacked as prime minister by court order and Thaksin now behind bars at Bangkok’s Klong Prem prison.
A senior corrections department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Thaksin “has relocated to stay at the medical wing due to his age and his health condition with chronic disease”.
The official did not say whether he was receiving treatment or had been moved to the wing as a precautionary measure.
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Ex-premier Paetongtarn, along with her mother and older sister, were among the first group to visit Thaksin on Monday after he completed a mandatory quarantine period.
Following a 30-minute visit, Paetongtarn told reporters and a gaggle of Thaksin supporters outside the jail his hair had been shaved in line with regulations for prisoners.
“His health is good. He is having some blood pressure problems but it’s normal for everyone staying inside prison to have stress,” she said.
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Thaksin was elected prime minister in 2001 and again in 2005, and took himself into exile after his second term was cut short by a military coup.
After returning in August 2023, he was sentenced to eight years for corruption and abuse of power.
But he never spent a night in a cell. Whisked to a private room in hospital, his sentence was reduced to one year by royal pardon, before he was freed as part of an early release scheme for elderly prisoners.
His lawyer Winyat Chatmontree said it is “not time” for him to submit an application for Thaksin to serve his current sentence outside prison.
“There must be a period of prison time, according to the regulations, before it could be taken into consideration,” he told reporters.
He said Thaksin had not sought any preferential treatment, including security arrangements, and “has no special room” in the jail. AFP
