Thaksin Shinawatra’s hospital stay case: Thai court rules ex-PM must spend one year in jail

Thailand’s former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, has been ordered to be jailed for one year by the country’s Supreme Court, ruling that he improperly served a 2023 prison term in a hospital.

Judges have ordered a warrant for his transfer to the Bangkok Remand Prison, dealing a major blow to Thailand’s biggest political heavyweight. This is the latest of woes in Shinawatra’s political clan after Paetongtarn Shinawatra was ousted last month.

“The enforcement of the defendant’s prison sentence was unlawful,” said the Supreme Court ruling read aloud to Thaksin and an audience of journalists and lawyers.

“The circumstances indicate that the defendant knew, or was aware, that he was not suffering from a critical emergency condition, but only from chronic illnesses that could have been treated on an outpatient basis, without the need for hospital admission at the Police General Hospital.”

Thaksin was elected prime minister in 2001 and again in 2005, but 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. However, he never spent a night in jail, citing health reasons and therefore his prison sentence was reduced to one year by royal pardon.

A corrections department official said on Tuesday that Thaksin reached the prison facility to be incarcerated for a year. Earlier today, Thaksin arrived at the court smiling and posing for photos, flanked by dynasty heiress Paetongtarn, who left the ruling without him but told reporters he was “in good spirits”.

While analysts agree the Shinawatra clan are on the ropes, they remain a political force to be reckoned with – and the telecoms magnate has often bounced back.

“I don’t think Thaksin will simply leave politics,” Titipol Phakdeewanich, a political scientist at Ubon Ratchathani University, told AFP.

With inputs from agencies