Thailand’s billionaire ex-PM Thaksin submits royal pardon request

Thailand’s former premier Thaksin Shinawatra has submitted a request for a royal pardon, outgoing Justice Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said on Thursday, his latest move in a long-running power struggle with the country’s establishment.

Thaksin, Thailand’s most famous politician, made a dramatic homecoming last week after 15 years abroad where he lived in self-exile to avoid prison.

Thaksin arrived on a private jet and greeted supporters before being moved to a prison to serve an eight-year sentence for abuse of power and conflicts of interest from his time in power.

Hours later, Srettha Thavisin of the Shinawatra-backed Pheu Thai party won a parliamentary vote to become prime minister with the support of pro-military lawmakers.

Thaksin, a former telecoms tycoon still wields influence in Thai politics with parties loyal to him winning every election in the past two decades until this year.

This month’s events have fuelled speculation that Thaksin has struck a deal with his bitter rivals in the conservative establishment and royalist military, which ousted his parties in coups in 2006 and 2014, at the time accusing him and his parties of corruption and disloyalty to the powerful monarchy.