(Reuters) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
BANGKOK, June 3- Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is set to be released from the remainder of his prison sentence under a royal pardon, the country’s justice minister \u200btold reporters on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thaksin, who was released on parole last month after \u200cserving eight months in prison, had just over three months remaining on his one-year sentence, which was due to expire in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
King Maha Vajiralongkorn granted pardons to selected prisoners to mark \u200bQueen Suthida’s birthday on June 3, the official royal gazette said late \u200bon Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When asked whether Thaksin was among those receiving the pardon, \u2060justice minister Rutthaphon Naowarat told reporters that he was, but said there were still some administrative \u200bprocedures to be completed before he is formally released and allowed to remove his electronic ankle bracelet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thaksin’s lawyer \u200bWinyat Chartmontri said he could not immediately confirm the decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Based on his qualifications, he appears to meet the criteria to receive the benefit of a royal pardon and release,” Winyat told Reuters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The \u200b76-year-old billionaire returned to Thailand in August 2023 after 15 years of self-imposed exile to \u200bserve an eight-year sentence for conflicts of interest and abuse of power committed while he was \u200cprime \u2060minister from 2001 to 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He returned on the same day a party allied to him secured enough parliamentary support to form a government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Within hours of arriving at prison, however, Thaksin was transferred to a hospital, citing heart and chest-related ailments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His sentence was \u200blater reduced to \u200bone year by \u2060royal clemency, and he spent six months in hospital before being granted parole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last year, the Supreme Court ordered Thaksin back to \u200bprison, ruling that his prolonged hospital stay was not fully \u200bjustified and \u2060that the remainder of his sentence should be served in custody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For two decades, Thaksin remained one of the most influential and divisive figures in Thai politics, shaping successive populist \u2060governments \u200bled by or aligned with the powerful Shinawatra \u200bfamily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His legal troubles deepened after the collapse of the Pheu Thai-led government last year and the rise of \u200bformer ally-turned-rival Anutin Charnvirakul to the premiership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(Reuters) BANGKOK, June 3- Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is set to be released from the remainder of his prison sentence under a royal pardon, the country’s justice minister \u200btold reporters on Wednesday. Thaksin, who was released on parole last month after \u200cserving eight months in prison, had just over three months remaining on his one-year sentence, which was due to expire in September. King Maha Vajiralongkorn granted pardons to selected prisoners to mark \u200bQueen Suthida’s birthday on June 3, the official royal gazette said late \u200bon Tuesday. When asked whether Thaksin was among those receiving the pardon, \u2060justice… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58210,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58209"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58211,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58209\/revisions\/58211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/58210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}