Justice Minister defends Thaksin over prolonged stay outside prison

By Thai Newsroom Reporters

JUSTICE MINISTER THAWEE Sodsong today (Jan.3) defended de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict at large Thaksin Shinawatra from allegations surrounding his extended stay outside a prison.

On the first day of floor debate on the 2024 budget bill today, Thawee called Thaksin a “peacemaker” who has returned from 17 years of self-exile and undergone treatments for secrecy-shrouded “illnesses” at Police Hospital for more than four months now.

The justice minister said he has never visited the de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict at Police Hospital but quoted doctors there as confirming that the deposed prime minister has fallen clinically ill despite sustained allegations that he had merely feigned it to keep himself from being literally put behind bars at Bangkok Remand Prison.

Thawee categorically denied that the Corrections Department which is currently handling the Thaksin case has applied double standards unprovided for other convicts since the agency is allocated a sum of 6.6 billion baht in funding out of the 2024 budget to take care of an estimated 280,000 inmates nationwide.

The justice minister who is in charge of the Corrections Department was responding to allegations launched hours earlier by former deputy prime minister-cum-former commerce minister/former Democrat leader Jurin Laksanavisit that the agency has flouted the judicial process and applied double standards for the de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict to the extent that he be practically allowed to remain outside the prison without schedule to be discharged from the hospital and be returned to jail.

The deposed prime minister who returned from 17 years in self-exile on Aug.22 – the same day on which former real estate tycoon Srettha Thavisin was named head of a Pheu Thai-led coalition government – had been earlier convicted by court of misconduct in office and sentenced in absentia to an eight-year jail term which was curtailed by royal pardon to one year with the probability of his being released on parole as soon as next month.

CAPTIONS:

Top: Justice Minister Thawee Sodsong, right, and former deputy prime minister-cum-former commerce minister Jurin Laksanavisit, left, with an image of de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra being wheeled for a scan at Police Hospital in the background. Photo: Matichon

Front Page: Justice Minister Thawee Sodsong. Photo: Naewna

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