Thailand’s attorney general’s office announced that it is still considering prosecuting former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra over an alleged insult to the monarchy, an official said on Tuesday. This comes just as Shinawatra is considered for release under parole.
The announcement relates to a 2015 interview he gave while in South Korea. Shinawatra suggested that Thailand’s Privy Council, which advises the nation’s constitutional monarch, had engineered the 2014 Thai military coup that overthrew the government of his sister, Yingluck Shinawatra. Thaksin Shinawatra is charged with breaching Section 112 of the Thai Criminal Code.
The update surrounding a possible new case comes a week after Move Forward, the largest party in the Thai parliament was forced to drop its lese-majeste reform plans after Thailand’s constitutional court ruled that the opposition party’s pledge to reform the country’s lese-majesty law is unlawful.
Thaskin, who served as prime minister from 2001-2006 returned to Thailand in August of 2023 after 15 years of exile to serve an eight-year sentence for abuse of power, which was subsequently commuted to one year by the monarchy. He has been detained at a hospital and has yet to spend time in prison.
