Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, seen here in Bangkok, Thailand in August of 2023. He was acquitted Friday of charges related to royal defamation. File Photo by Rungroj Yongrit/EPA-EFE
Aug. 22 (UPI) — Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra avoided a likely prison term Friday after his royal defamation case was dismissed.
Shinawatra was indicted last year on charges he defied the country’s lese majeste law, which prohibits anyone from insulting the Thai monarchy.
He was accused by a general from the military regime that took power in 2014, in a coup that deposed the prime minister at that time, his sister Yingluck Shinawatra.
Shinawatra allegedly disrespected the monarchy in an interview he gave in 2015 to a South Korean newspaper in which he said people connected to the “palace” helped overthrow Yingluck.
Shinawatra was living in Dubai at the time in a self-imposed exile, and out of reach for prosecution. The 76-year-old could have seen as many as 15 years in prison if found guilty.
The charges against Shinawatra, who was elected prime minister in 2001 but removed himself in a 2006 coup, were widely believed to be politicized due to his hold on power despite being absent.
Even while he remained outside Thailand’s borders, political parties tied to Shinawatra won national elections until 2023.
It was then he returned and was indicted over the defamation charges in June of 2024. He was also charged with violating Thailand’s Computer Crime Act because the interview in question ran online, but that was also dismissed Friday.
Shinawatra will next face a judge in September, as he was hospitalized upon returning to Thailand and is accused of using that stay to avoid being imprisoned.
Retired politician and billionaire businessman was accused of violating Thailand’s strict laws on insults to Thai royalty.
A court in Thailand has dismissed a high-profile case against the country’s former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra over allegations he violated the country’s strict laws on royal insults, the Reuters news agency reports.
Thaksin’s lawyer told Reuters that the court dropped the case on Friday and cleared his client of violating Thailand’s lese-majeste laws that criminalise almost all criticism of the country’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn.
The court has yet to publicly announce its decision.
This is a breaking news story. More to follow shortly.
Bangkok, Thailand – A court is poised to decide whether Thailand’s most consequential and controversial political figure of the past 25 years, Thaksin Shinawatra, insulted the country’s revered monarchy, a crime that can land a culprit in jail for up to 15 years.
The charge, under Thailand’s strict “lese-majeste” royal defamation law, stems from an interview the 76-year-old business tycoon and former prime minister gave to a South Korean newspaper in 2015 regarding a military coup that toppled his sister and then-Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in 2014.
Though holding no official role in government, Thaksin remains a towering figure bearing over Thailand’s stormy politics, and the verdict on Friday will test the state of his long-fraught relationship with the country’s powerful royalist establishment.
“The prosecution is of great political significance,” said Verapat Pariyawong, a Thai law and politics scholar at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) University of London.
“If found innocent, Mr Thaksin would rely on the verdict as proof that he has always been a loyalist, contrary to the accusations by his political opponents which inflamed conflicts over the past two decades,” Verapat told Al Jazeera.
A guilty verdict, on the other hand, could “trigger a new round of political conflicts”, he said.
“Some would see it as a breakdown of the so-called grand compromise that paved the way for Mr Thaksin’s return to Thailand, and undoubtedly many will link the guilty verdict to other pending major court decisions not just against Mr Thaksin but also his daughter and suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra,” he added.
After 15 years in self-imposed exile, Thaksin returned to Thailand in 2023.
That lengthy absence from Thailand helped him to avoid a prison sentence on a prior corruption charge, though he was still forced to complete a commuted term in custody on his return home.
His latest tribulations stem from a royal defamation charge in June 2024, and he is also on trial for allegedly faking ill health in order to serve his sentence for corruption outside of jail.
Thaksin’s daughter and currently the country’s suspended prime minister, Paetongtarn, is being prosecuted for an alleged breach of ethics over a leaked phone call with Cambodia’s former prime minister and strongman Hun Sen.
A court suspended Paetongtarn from her duties as premier on ethical grounds last month after Hun Sen leaked their phone conversation, in which the Thai prime minister spoke reverentially to the Cambodian leader.
During the call, Paetongtarn referred to Hun Sen as “uncle” and criticised a Thai army commander.
Her political adversaries and other people said it was unbecoming of a Thai premier to have addressed a foreign leader so deferentially, and criticising the military is also a red line in a country where the politically powerful armed forces are held in high esteem.
A court is due to rule in Paetongtarn’s case on August 29, a verdict which could see her removed from office permanently.
With the help of a government scholarship, he earned a master’s degree and then a doctorate in criminal justice in the United States before returning to public service in Thailand and resigning from the police force as a lieutenant colonel in 1987.
Leveraging his professional contacts, Thaksin tried his hand at a number of business ventures before striking gold in telecommunications, founding and, in time, building his Shin Corp into an industry leader.
It also launched Thaksin onto Thailand’s richest list.
Last month, Forbes ranked Thaksin 11th among the country’s wealthiest families or people, with a personal net worth of $2.1bn.
In the 1990s, Thaksin started parlaying his business success into a political career, founding his first of many parties by the end of the decade.
On the back of a populist platform that promised affordable healthcare and debt relief, he landed in the prime minister’s office with a resounding general election win in 2001 and another in 2005.
But mounting scandals cut his second four-year term short.
Amid accusations of corruption over the $1.9bn sale of Shin Corp and an unrelated land deal that prompted mass protests, the Thai military removed Thaksin and his government in a 2006 coup.
A Thai court convicted him over the land deal the next year. To avoid jail, he fled into self-imposed exile in 2008.
Wanwichit Boonprong, a Rangsit University lecturer, says Thaksin had made powerful enemies within the country’s military – a force that has grown accustomed to managing its internal affairs largely independent of the government – by trying to steer the appointment and transfer of high-ranking officers.
By seeming to meddle in the military’s work, Wanwichit told Al Jazeera, Thaksin raised fears that he was bent on both “undermining the military and weakening the monarchy”.
The military has long prided itself as the ultimate protector of the Thai monarchy, a touchstone of the country’s influential conservative movement.
Thaksin also pulled off the rare feat in 2005 of winning enough seats in the House of Representatives to form a government without the need for any coalition partners, making him uncommonly potent as a political force.
That popularity scared his critics, says Khemthong Tonsakulrungruang, an assistant professor at Chulalongkorn University.
“That popularity, combined with his quick and outspoken manner, raised a lot of people’s suspicion that he might want to or he might try to compete with King Bhumibol [Adulyadej],” he said.
While there was little, if any, proof to back that up, Khemthong said, “it became a very convenient tool to mobilise people” against Thaksin.
Army officials take pictures in front of Thailand’s then-King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s portrait as people gather to mark his 88th birthday, in Bangkok in 2015 [File: Jorge Silva/Reuters]
‘Super active’
But even in exile overseas, Thaksin continued to dominate Thai politics.
Parties tied to the Shinawatra family kept winning elections and forming governments, only to be thwarted by the military or the courts each time.
With a prison sentence hanging over him, the tech mogul stayed abroad for 15 years, until returning to Bangkok to cheering crowds on August 22, 2023.
Before leaving the airport, Thaksin ostentatiously prostrated himself before a portrait of the country’s new king, Maha Vajiralongkorn, son of the late King Bhumibol.
The very same day, the Shinawatras’s latest party, Pheu Thai, secured the premiership for its candidate, Srettha Thavisin, by backing out of a planned coalition with the more progressive Move Forward party, which had won that year’s general election.
Pheu Thai rejected speculation that it had struck a “grand bargain” with the conservative establishment by pulling away from Move Forward, which had campaigned on reining in the military and the monarchy’s powers, in exchange for Thaksin’s safe return.
However, only nine days later, King Vajiralongkorn commuted Thaksin’s prison sentence from eight years to one, and he was out on parole within months. He had also spent his entire six months in custody in a private room in the luxury wing of a state hospital.
Now, with Thaksin on the brink of another conviction that could again send him to jail, the “grand bargain” is seen to be fraying.
“A lot of people understand that when Thaksin came back he would lay low, that he was allowed to come back but he wasn’t allowed to be politically active, he should stay at home, be quiet. But instead of that he was super active,” said Chulalongkorn University’s Khemthong.
Despite having no official role in the Pheu Thai party or the government it now leads, Thaksin has spent little time out of the spotlight since returning home less than two years ago – proposing grand policy prescriptions at public fora, touring constituencies with reporters in tow, conferring with domestic and international leaders alike.
“So, a lot of people speculate that the [defamation] charge was to put more control over him, to control his behaviour, his political activism,” Khemthong said.
Thaksin’s continued high-profile lifestyle has also led to the popular belief that he, not his daughter, is still the real power behind the party, and by extension the government.
“Everyone knows that Thaksin is the spiritual leader and the real owner of the Pheu Thai Party,” said Rangsit University’s Wanwichit.
“Using this [defamation] case is akin to trying to keep Thaksin in check in the conservative power play,” and amounts to insisting that “he must obey the conservatives’ established guidelines,” Wanwichit added.
‘Court battle’
Critics of Thailand’s royal defamation law, or of how the courts use it, say it has long been swung like a cudgel against threats – real or imagined – to the conservative establishment’s political power and privilege.
The law, under Section 112 of the Criminal Code, prescribes up to 15 years in jail for anyone who “defames, insults or threatens” the king, queen, heir apparent or regent.
But Verapat, of SOAS, says many have “fallen victim” to the courts’ “expansive interpretation” of the law.
In January 2024, the country’s Constitutional Court ruled that the Move Forward party had breached the law by promoting a bill that proposed limits on how it could be used.
The panel of judges accused the party of harbouring a hidden agenda to undermine the country’s constitutional monarchy and ordered Move Forward to disband as a political movement.
When thousands of protesters took to the streets of Bangkok through much of 2020, calling on the military-aligned government at the time to step down, their list of demands grew to include reforms meant to rein in the monarchy’s alleged influence over politics in the military’s favour.
Since then, more than 280 people have been charged under Section 112, according to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, a local advocacy group.
Among the most prominent of the 2020 protesters was lawyer Arnon Nampa, who has been sentenced to a cumulative 27 years and eight months following his 10th conviction on a royal defamation charge in July.
Thai Lawyers for Human Rights has called the use of the law “a form of violence against those who exercise their right to freedom of expression”.
The defamation case against Thaksin, which is based on a 10-year-old interview in which he criticised no one strictly covered by Section 112, fits into that same, expansive “modus operandi”, Chulalongkorn University’s Khemthong said.
Whichever way the verdict goes on Friday, analysts say the fallout for Thaksin and the Shinawatra family is unlikely to be immediately known, as either side can and probably will appeal.
Khemthong said the case against Thaksin could continue to drag out for months, if not a year or more.
Rangsit University’s Wanwichit concurred.
“The appeals court battle will likely continue regardless of the verdict,” he said.
Just two weeks earlier, his daughter Paetongtarn was suspended as prime minister by the country’s Constitutional Court.
Former Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra has testified in court, seeking to defend himself against royal defamation charges that could land him 15 years in prison, just weeks after his daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra was suspended as prime minister.
Thaksin stands accused of breaching strict lese-majeste laws shielding Thailand’s royal family from abuse and criticism in a closed-door trial in the capital, Bangkok, that began earlier this month and continued on Wednesday.
The prosecution’s case revolves around remarks Thaksin made to South Korean media a decade ago, with the defendant due to give at least three days of testimony. A verdict is not expected for several weeks.
Recent events for both father and daughter are a serious blow to the powerful Shinawatra political dynasty. For the past quarter-century, the 75-year-old telecoms magnate has been a defining figure of Thai politics, founding a movement which has competed with the traditional pro-royal, pro-military elite.
His prosecution, combined with Paetongtarn’s suspension two weeks ago, represents a dramatic waning of their family’s political fortune, analysts say.
Thaksin’s lawyer Winyat Chatmontri told the AFP news agency his client testified on Wednesday morning “and will continue throughout the rest of the day”.
About 50 Thaksin supporters gathered at the court, wearing red shirts, the colour of his political movement, emblazoned with a portrait of his face.
“He is a very talented guy,” 79-year-old retired accountant Vaew Wilailak told AFP. “But from past experience, bad people just want to get rid of him.”
Thaksin returned to Thailand in August 2023 after 15 years in exile, following a military coup which removed him from the prime minister’s office that he won in two elections.
He returned the day his family’s Pheu Thai party took office, at the head of a coalition government backed by their conservative former enemies, prompting suspicions a backroom deal had been struck.
Thaksin was immediately sentenced to eight years in prison on corruption and abuse of power charges – later reduced to one year by a pardon from King Maha Vajiralongkorn in another apparent sign of reconciliation.
In recent interviews, Thaksin affirmed his loyalty to the monarchy and expressed gratitude for the king’s pardon.
Speaking to AFP outside the court on the trial’s opening day on July 1, Winyat said his client appeared “chill” despite the seriousness of the case.
On the same day, Paetongtarn was suspended by the Constitutional Court, pending an ethics probe into her conduct during a leaked diplomatic phone call discussing a deadly border clash between Thai and Cambodian troops on May 28, which resulted in the death of a Cambodian soldier and reignited longstanding tensions in the region.
The scandal “became a full-blown crisis” after the leaked call suggested that Paetongtarn had “compromised her position by kowtowing” to former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, professor of political science and international relations at Chulalongkorn University, told the Turkish news agency Anadolu.
In the call, Paetongtarn referred to Hun Sen as “uncle” and described a Thai military commander as an “opponent”.
Pheu Thai’s coalition has been abandoned by key conservative backers over the call, leaving it with a razor-thin parliamentary majority steered by a caretaker prime minister.
Constitutional Court hears petition seeking premier’s dismissal as separate court hears defamation case against her father.
Thailand’s ruling political dynasty is facing legal peril, as the country’s Constitutional Court considers a petition seeking the dismissal of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, while a separate court hears a royal defamation suit against her father, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
The petition filed by 36 senators and being heard on Tuesday accuses Paetongtarn of dishonesty and breaching ethical standards in violation of the constitution over a leaked telephone conversation with Cambodia’s influential former leader, Hun Sen. If the court accepts the case, it could decide to suspend the premier from duty with immediate effect.
Thaksin also has his first hearing at Bangkok’s Criminal Court on Tuesday in a case centred on allegations that he insulted Thailand’s powerful monarchy, a serious offence punishable by up to 15 years in prison if found guilty. He denies the charges and has repeatedly pledged allegiance to the crown.
The kingdom’s politics have for years been dominated by a battle between the conservative, pro-military, pro-royalist elite and the Shinawatra family, whom the elite consider a threat to Thailand’s traditional social order.
On Tuesday, Thailand’s Constitutional Court is due to meet for the first time since a group of conservative senators lodged a case against Paetongtarn, accusing her of breaching ministerial ethics during a diplomatic spat with Cambodia.
If the court decides to hear the case, they could suspend the prime minister as they enter months-long deliberations, plunging Thailand into chaos as it grapples with a spluttering economy and the threat of tariffs from the United States.
The controversy stems from a June 15 call intended to defuse escalating border tensions with Cambodia. During the call, Paetongtarn, 38, referred to Hun Sen as “uncle”, and criticised a Thai army commander, a red line in a country where the military has significant clout. She has apologised and said her remarks were a negotiating tactic.
The leaked conversation triggered outrage and has left Paetongtarn’s coalition with a razor-thin majority, with a key party abandoning the alliance and expected to soon seek a no-confidence vote in parliament, as thousands of demonstrators demand the premier resign.
“I will let the process take its course,” a downcast Paetongtarn told reporters on Monday. “If you are asking whether I am worried, I am.”
If Paetongtarn is suspended, power will pass to her deputy, Phumtham Wechayachai.
The 38-year-old Paetongtarn took office less than a year ago but has been badly weakened by the Cambodia controversy.
Thailand’s king on Tuesday approved Paetongtarn’s cabinet reshuffle after her allies quit. She has appointed herself as culture minister.
Meanwhile, Thaksin, the 75-year-old family patriarch and billionaire twice elected leader in the early 2000s, appeared at a Bangkok criminal court to face accusations of breaching strict lese-majeste laws used to shield Thailand’s king from criticism.
The allegations stem from a 2015 interview he gave to South Korean media and he faces up to 15 years in jail after the trial, which is set to last for weeks, with a verdict not expected for at least a month after that.
A court official confirmed to the AFP news agency that the trial had started but media would not be allowed in.
Thaksin has denied the charges against him and repeatedly pledged allegiance to the crown.
Thaksin dodged jail and spent six months in hospital detention on medical grounds before being released on parole in February last year. The Supreme Court will this month scrutinise that hospital stay and could potentially send him back to jail.
