By Thai Newsroom Reporters
THE MEDICAL COUNCIL of Thailand today (May 8) concluded that the unprecedented event in which de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatr had fallen “critically ill” was definitely untrue whilst it had been earlier claimed otherwise without factual evidence.
Medical Council vice-president Prasit Watanapa announced that today’s meeting of about 60 councillors had not clinically found Thaksin, father of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, as being “critically ill” as earlier claimed in public after the mega-billionaire power player had been transferred from Bangkok Remand prison’s hospital to Police Hospital where he had stayed under the pretext of “critical illnesses” for a six-month time until he released on parole early last year.
The Medical Council concluded that Thaksin’s health conditions had not clinically reached a critical point to otherwise warrant his extended stay at Police Hospital in lieu of the prison’s hospital, according to the council’s vice-president.
Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether Public Health Minister Somsak Thepsuthin who concurrently acts as special chair of the Medical Council may veto the council’s resolutions pertaining to Thaksin’s truthful health conditions and his arguably extended stay at Police Hospital’s private ward in lieu of the prison’s hospital without being clinically “critically ill” as earlier propagated by non-medical persons including his youngest daughter-turned-prime minister.
The de facto Pheu Thai boss and some doctors at the prison’s hospital and Police Hospital had allegedly used legal loopholes in the Corrections Act to keep him from being literally put behind bars for a single day.
If the Pheu Thai-attached public health minister vetoed the Medical Council’s resolutions for whatever conceivable reasons, a minimum of two-thirds of the councillors would be needed to reassert and finally render them effective, according to the council’s vice-president who gave a press conference at the council’s headquarters.
Meanwhile, two unidentified doctors treating the mega-billionaire power player have had their medical licence temporarily withheld at the order of the Medical Council for having compromised medical ethics by giving falsified information about his health conditions only to do him undue favours whilst one other will be formally warned for compromising his medical profession, Prasit said.
The Supreme Court judges in charge of criminal lawsuits against persons in political positions are scheduled to open a court trial on June 13 pertaining to the sensational saga in which Thaksin had allegedly feigned “critical illnesses” to evade a curtailed, one-year jail sentence with affidavits to be filed by chief officials of Bangkok Remand prison and Police Hospital.
The Supreme Court had earlier concluded that the jail sentence earlier delivered to Thaksin had not been practically served, thus vindicating testimony of those relevant officials and the de facto Pheu Thai boss himself for trial that day.
The woman prime minister’s father could possibly be returned to prison from where he had allegedly manipulated to literally keep his distance at an order of the Supreme Court as soon as next month.
The globetrotting Thaksin had been earlier convicted in absentia to eight years in jail on power abuse charges perpetrated during his previous premiership a couple of decades ago with the sentence having been commuted to only one year under royal pardon. Upon his homecoming in 2023 following 17 years in self-exile, the de facto Pheu Thai boss had allegedly used his resources and clandestinely engaged in power play to stay above the law since.
CAPTIONS:
Top: De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra next to the Medical Council’s statement. Photo: Amarin TV
Insert: Medical Council vice-president Prasit Watanapa. Photo: Naewna
Front Page: De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra, left, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Prasert Watanapa. Photo: Naewna
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