The Supreme Court has sentenced Thaksin Shinawatra to one year in prison, with immediate effect, after ruling that his previous transfer to a police hospital was unlawful. The court ordered Thaksin to be sent to Bangkok Remand Prison yesterday morning, and he was transferred from there to the high-security Klongprem Central Prison.
Thaksin returned to Thailand from self-exile in 2023, and was taken directly from the airport to be sentenced in his outstanding corruption trial. He received an eight-year sentence in that case, though on his first night in jail he was transferred to hospital for unspecified medical reasons.
His eight-year sentence was commuted to one year following a royal pardon, and he was released on parole early last year. He had spent six months in hospital, and had not served any of his sentence behind bars. Announcing the one-year sentence yesterday, the judge said: “Sending him to hospital was not legal... staying in hospital cannot count as a prison term”.
After being paroled, Thaksin was photographed (rather unconvincingly) in a neck brace and sling, though he was accused of conspiring with prison staff to gain admittance to hospital under false pretenses. Those suspicions were confirmed yesterday, when the Supreme Court ruled that his hospital stay had indeed been a ruse to avoid jail time. The investigation was nicknamed the ‘14th floor case’, as Thaksin stayed in a suite on the 14th floor of the Police General Hospital.
On 5th September, just four days before yesterday’s court ruling, Thaksin flew out of the country unexpectedly. After being briefly detained at the airport while immigration police confirmed that he wasn’t subject to a travel ban, he took a private jet to Dubai. This led to speculation that he had fled the country in anticipation of a guilty verdict (as he had in 2008), though he flew back to Thailand via Singapore two days ago.
Thaksin returned to Thailand from self-exile in 2023, and was taken directly from the airport to be sentenced in his outstanding corruption trial. He received an eight-year sentence in that case, though on his first night in jail he was transferred to hospital for unspecified medical reasons.
His eight-year sentence was commuted to one year following a royal pardon, and he was released on parole early last year. He had spent six months in hospital, and had not served any of his sentence behind bars. Announcing the one-year sentence yesterday, the judge said: “Sending him to hospital was not legal... staying in hospital cannot count as a prison term”.
After being paroled, Thaksin was photographed (rather unconvincingly) in a neck brace and sling, though he was accused of conspiring with prison staff to gain admittance to hospital under false pretenses. Those suspicions were confirmed yesterday, when the Supreme Court ruled that his hospital stay had indeed been a ruse to avoid jail time. The investigation was nicknamed the ‘14th floor case’, as Thaksin stayed in a suite on the 14th floor of the Police General Hospital.
On 5th September, just four days before yesterday’s court ruling, Thaksin flew out of the country unexpectedly. After being briefly detained at the airport while immigration police confirmed that he wasn’t subject to a travel ban, he took a private jet to Dubai. This led to speculation that he had fled the country in anticipation of a guilty verdict (as he had in 2008), though he flew back to Thailand via Singapore two days ago.
