By Thai Newsroom Reporters
PHEU THAI LEADER PAETONGTARN Shinawatra today (Feb.9) made a puzzling statement about her father/de facto party boss-cum-convict at large Thaksin Shinawatra, saying he has already been questioned by public prosecutors over lese majeste charges and is anticipated to literally return home.
Paetongtarn told reporters that public prosecutors have already questioned her father, who has been currently staying at Police Hospital, on lese majeste charges over his verbal statements earlier made abroad in alleged violation of the draconian lese majeste law, also known as Section 112 of the Criminal Code.
Her latest comment apparently contradicted with news reports that police attached to the Technology Crime Suppression Division and public prosecutors attached to the Office of the Attorney-General had awaited a yet-to-be-held questioning of the de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict to whom no visits have been allowed by anyone other than his family members, given privacy reasons for the privileged patient who has been staying at Police Hospital in lieu of Bangkok Remand Prison for more than five months now.
House Committee on Police Affairs chair Chaichana Dejdecho earlier tried in vain to see the “sickly” Thaksin in person but was barred by Corrections Department officials and hospital staff from literally getting in his private ward at the hospital, citing the patient’s privacy.
No public prosecutors or police tasked with the questioning of the privileged convict were reported to have visited him at the hospital for that matter, however.
If Paetongtarn’s statement was truthful, there most certainly would be no questioning of her father by the police or public prosecutors on the lese majeste charges after he has been released on parole, speculated on Feb.18.
The Pheu Thai leader said the Shinawatra family has already prepared Chan Song Lah residence on the Thonburi side of the capital city to welcome her father back home.
The de facto Pheu Thai boss had been earlier convicted by court of a few counts of misconduct perpetrated during his previous premiership and sentenced in absentia to an eight-year jail term which was curtailed by royal pardon to one year with his release on parole speculated on Feb.18.
The “untouchable” Thaksin has not spent a single day behind bars since he returned from self-exile abroad last August and gone through roughly half of his one-year term, albeit outside of the prison.
CAPTION:
De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra with his daughter/party leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra. Top photo: Thai Rath, Front Page photo: Matichon
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