Ex-prime minister proposes B5-million security to enter the Asean gathering in Malaysia.
PUBLISHED: 31 Jan 2025 at 17: 01
Thaksin Shinawatra requested that the Criminal Court grant him a 5-million-baht money guarantee to temporarily leave Thailand.
The former prime minister was given permission to travel to Malaysia on Sunday and Monday by the court on Friday.
Thaksin designated himself as a witness and former prime minister Maris Sangiampongsa as one, and supported records from the ministry of foreign affairs to support his need to leave the country.
He was required to set up 5 million ringgit in money as loan by the court. Within three weeks of returning home, he was even required to turn himself in and inform the immigration office when he entered the country.
” I am going for a meeting, not for a vacation”, Thaksin told reporters after leaving the court.
His lawyer, Winyat Chartmontri, said Thaksin would attend a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( Asean ) in Malaysia, which holds the Asean chairmanship this year.
Thaksin was previously chosen as one of Anwar Ibrahim’s unofficial experts on Asean matters.  ,
Thaksin’s second request to travel abroad was made on Friday at the courtroom hearing, which came after his 17-year exile in August 2023.
On the day he returned to Thailand in August 2023, Thaksin was given an eight-year prison sentence that was later reduced to a month by a royal pardon. Before being granted parole in February of last year, he always spent a day behind bars, serving his time at the Police General Hospital. He was granted a few days before deadline last month, and a royal forgive made him a free man.
He also needs court permission to travel overseas and is facing charges of lese-majeste and computer violence violations. In July this time, the judge has scheduled seven hearings for the case’s testimony, which resulted from an interview he conducted in South Korea in 2015.  ,