Thailand’s jailed former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, 74, who was jailed for eight years for abuse of power before a royal pardon reduced the term to one year, was granted release on parole, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin told reporters on February 20.
Thaksin swept to power in 2001 on a populist platform that appealed to rural Thais who had long been neglected by the country’s ruling elites. He was returned to office in a landslide five years later but the military soon seized power in a coup.
Thaksin—who was also accused of serious human rights abuses amid a violent conflict in the country’s mostly Muslim southern provinces and a “drugs war,” which killed thousands—was later convicted of abuse of power and went into exile, mostly in Dubai.
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