Nobody can visit Thaksin at hospital if he says no: Somsak

By Thai Newsroom Reporters

NOBODY CAN VISIT the “sickly” de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict at large Thaksin Shinawatra at Police Hospital if he refuses to be visited, according to Deputy Prime Minister Somsak Thepsuthin.

Somsak said today (Dec.22) the patient is “legally privileged” to maintain ultimate privacy and decide for himself whether he may disagree to having anyone other than family members and medical personnel visit him in a tight-security ward at Police Hospital where he has been staying beyond a 120-day period earlier provided by law.

Somsak was responding to news reports that members of the House Committee on Police Affairs are scheduled to visit the de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict at large at the hospital on Jan.12 with apparent intent to find out the truth about his secrecy-shrouded “illnesses” which have been obviously keeping him from being literally put behind bars at Bangkok Remand Prison since the last four months.

House committee chair Chaichana Dejdecho has earlier said hospital doctors and prison officials who had testified before his panel had largely failed to shed light upon the deposed prime minister’s current health condition and correctional procedures for the handling of convicts outside of a prison.

Neither can the details and symptoms of his “illnesses” be publicly unveiled by anyone if the “legally privileged” patient himself disagrees in the first place and those who might otherwise expose them would undoubtedly be prosecuted in a damage lawsuit as long as the patient’s privacy and privileges are concerned, Somsak said.

The Pheu Thai-attached deputy prime minister commented that laws and regulations governing the imprisonment of convicts may be amended “in the internationally recognized course of national development” and that the contentious leniency granted to the deposed prime minister for the time being was merely a “coincidence.”

The deputy prime minister said the recently amended regulation of the Corrections Department which may allow for convicts to be “detained” at places outside of a prison will not only benefit Thaksin but many others.

Somsak apparently came out as the only member of cabinet who has been outspoken about the de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict at large whilst Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has remained tightlipped and sidestepped reporters’ questions about him.

Nevertheless, the de facto Pheu Thai boss who has been convicted of a few counts of misconduct during his previous premiership, originally sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison and then granted royal pardon for a curtailed one-year jail term is more or less speculated to be transferred from Police Hospital as soon as around the end of this month to some living quarters in “house arrest” fashion until February when he will very likely be released on parole.

CAPTIONS:

Top: De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra, left, and Deputy Prime Minister Somsak Thepsuthin, right.

Front Page: Thaksin Shinawatra next to the Corrections Department logo.  Both photos: Matichon

Also read: Thaksin likely allowed to stay on at Police Hospital

Analysis: ‘House arrest’ for privileged convict Thaksin imminent

House committee members plan to visit Thaksin at Police Hospital

Corrections Dept told to transfer Thaksin from Police Hospital to army barracks

PM shrugs off questions about Corrections Dept’s latest regulation for Thaksin

Corrections Dept, Police Hospital representatives face House panel grilling on Thaksin

Paetongtarn ‘too ashamed’ to tell truth or lie about her father’s ‘illnesses’

Justice Minister not empowered to endorse Thaksin’s extended stay at hospital

Corrections Dept told to not handle a house arrest for Thaksin