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Thai king cuts ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra’s prison sentence to 1 year: ‘he showed remorse’
- State journal, the Royal Gazette, said the 74-year-old billionaire had ‘accepted his crime and shown remorse’
- The former leader’s homecoming coincided with his Pheu Thai party returning to government in an alliance with pro-military parties
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Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn commuted the eight-year prison sentence of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to 12 months, the Royal Gazette journal said on Friday, days after the divisive billionaire returned from a 15-year self-exile.
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Thaksin’s rapid rehabilitation from being the bête noire of Thailand’s arch-royalist establishment comes after a shock election win in May by the radical Move Forward Party, which won 14 million votes and rattled the elite with calls for deep structural reforms.
The party also won the most parliamentary seats in the polls, yet has been pushed into the opposition.
Instead, Thaksin’s Pheu Thai – once seen as a beacon of Thailand’s battered pro-democracy bloc – is set to move into government next week heading a coalition of conservatives, including army-linked former rivals.
“Thaksin accepted his crime and showed remorse,” the Royal Gazette said, explaining the sentence reduction, adding that the 74-year-old former prime minister was ill.
Thaksin is in a police hospital in downtown Bangkok where he is suffering from high blood pressure, authorities say, after serving one night in a remand prison.
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After his one year is served he will be freed and encouraged “to use his knowledge, capability and experience to help benefit the country, society and the people”, the Royal Gazette said.
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