PUBLISHED : 20 Dec 2023 at 04:00
Political activist Srisuwan Janya petitioned the Administrative Court yesterday to nullify both an order allowing jailed former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to receive medical treatment outside of prison and the latest regulation by the Department of Corrections allowing prisoners to be detained in other facilities.
Mr Srisuwan said he viewed that regulation as a new tool to help Thaksin dodge his one-year jail term after spending almost four months in a premium ward at the Police General Hospital (PGH) since his return to Thailand on Aug 22 after 17 years of self-imposed exile overseas.
Thaksin, who was, upon returning to Thailand, sentenced to eight years over three cases, was transferred to the hospital just a few hours after he was admitted to a quarantine section of Bangkok Remand Prison on Aug 22. His term was later commuted to one year via a royal pardon.
Citing Section 55 of the 2017 Corrections Act, Mr Srisuwan said only a prisoner suffering from a mental condition or having a contagious disease is eligible to receive treatment outside the prison.
From the information revealed by the department and the PGH about Thaksin’s health, he didn’t have any such condition and is not eligible to receive treatment outside of prison, Mr Srisuwan said.
As for the department’s new regulation, which took effect on Dec 7 and was claimed by the department to be an ideal solution to the overcrowding in prisons, Mr Srisuwan said most of the inmates are drug convicts who are ineligible to serve their time outside of prison as claimed by the department.
That only adds weight to speculation the rule is intended as a privilege for Thaksin and undermines the Supreme Court’s ruling sentencing him to years in jail for corruption, said Mr Srisuwan.
He petitioned the Administrative Court to hold an urgent inquiry and consider nullifying both the order and the associated new regulation.
In another development, Senator Jetn Sirathranont raised a question during a senatorial sitting yesterday as to whether Justice Minister Tawee Sodsong, the director-general of the Department of Corrections and the chief medical officer of the PGH were undermining the country’s judicial procedures and breaching the rule of law by allowing Thaksin to receive treatment at the PGH for almost four months.
These three parties had never clearly responded to questions about precisely which serious medical conditions Thaksin was suffering from that made him eligible to receive this privilege, he said.
The three parties claimed it was strictly confidential patient information, said the senator.