Thailand: court orders ex-PM Thaksin to serve one year in jail

In yet another setback for the powerful political dynasty, Thailand’s highest court has decided that former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra must serve a year in prison.

It decided that he must serve the remainder of his jail term in jail because he had illegally served a portion of it in a hospital.

The well-known case is connected to a prior conviction for corruption.

Since his initial election as prime minister in 2001, Thaksin and his family have controlled Thai politics. In a case involving a leaked phone conversation with Hun Sen of Cambodia, his daughter Paetongtarn was ousted from office last month after the constitutional court found she had transgressed ethical standards.

Paetongtarn, who accompanied her 76-year-old father to court on Tuesday, told reporters after the ruling that she was “worried” for her father but that he and their family were in “good spirits”.

She also vowed to take the family’s Pheu Thai party forward in their work as an opposition party.

Thaksin’s latest case stems from an earlier conviction linked to his premiership.

The former PM was ousted in a military coup in 2006 and spent years living in self-imposed exile, mostly in Dubai.

When he returned to Thailand in 2023, he was promptly tried and found guilty of corruption and abuse of power during his time in office. He was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Following Thaksin’s plea for a royal pardon, the Thai king commuted his sentence to one year.

But he ended up spending only less than a day in a jail cell as he was swiftly moved to a luxury wing of the Police General Hospital after complaining of heart problems.

He stayed there for six months, then received parole and moved to his home in Bangkok.

The latest case centred on whether Thaksin’s transfer to hospital was lawful and whether he was genuinely ill.

The “14th floor case”, as it is known in Thailand because of the hospital floor he stayed at, has gripped many Thais who were watching to see if the PM would end up serving time in prison.