© Reuters. Thailand’s former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra sits subsequent to his daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra, as they depart a police hospital after being granted parole, in Bangkok, Thailand, February 18, 2024. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
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By Napat Wesshasartar and Athit Perawongmetha
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s jailed billionaire former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was seen early on Sunday in a automobile leaving a hospital the place he has been in detention for the previous six months, in keeping with Reuters witnesses.
Thaksin, 74, had been scheduled to be launched on parole on Sunday, in keeping with Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin. Thaksin’s lawyer couldn’t instantly be reached for affirmation he had been formally launched.
Thailand’s best-known and most polarising premier, Thaksin has loomed massive over politics for 20 years, regardless of 15 years in self-imposed exile to keep away from a jail sentence for abuse of energy and conflicts of curiosity.
It will be Thaksin’s first style of freedom on Thai soil since fleeing the nation almost 16 years in the past within the wake of a coup.
Thaksin made a dramatic return from exile in August to cheering crowds and was taken to jail to serve an eight-year sentence. Nonetheless, he was transferred to a hospital with well being points on his first evening in jail and has been detained there for the previous six months.
Reuters journalists noticed Thaksin in a black Mercedes van sporting a inexperienced shirt and surgical face masks, sitting beside his youngest daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, as a convoy of automobiles left the hospital.