Opposition leader says public suspicion will be justified if ex-premier leaves hospital the moment parole takes effect
If former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra leaves hospital the moment his parole takes effect this weekend, public suspicion will grow about whether he was ever really ill, opposition leader Chaithawat Tulathon said on Thursday.
And if Thaksin starts making political comments, as some people expect from the patriarch of the coalition-leading Pheu Thai Party, then the country will appear to have two prime ministers, Mr Chaithawat said.
Thaksin has been in Police General Hospital since the early morning hours of Aug 23 last year, just hours after he entered prison. He was among a number of elderly and ill prisoners approved this week for parole.
It is believed that he might be transferred from the hospital late Saturday night or early Sunday morning and taken to the family home on Charan Sanitwong Soi 69 in Bangkok.
“After midnight, I don’t know how many minutes after that, if (Thaksin) leaves the hospital right away, the reported necessity for him to stay in hospital will be shown to have been not true,” said Mr Chaithawat, who is also the leader of the Move Forward Party.
“If afterwards he regains power and is ready to meet people throughout the country, that will be a bigger issue.”
Thaksin’s daughter Paetongtarn recently became the leader of the Pheu Thai Party. Some political analysts believe she is being groomed to eventually take over as prime minister from Srettha Thavisin, and that Thaksin will play an active role in advising her.
Mr Srettha said this week, though, that he believed he would be able to complete his four-year term.
Mr Chaithawat commented that everyone has the right to express political opinions, but if Thaksin does so, there could be complications in terms of the national administration and questions about who is the real prime minister.
“I may then have to warn the executive not to create the circumstance of double prime ministers,” he said.
After 15 years of self-imposed exile, Thaksin returned to the country last Aug 22. That very day, the Supreme Court ordered him imprisoned for eight years for abuse of power and conflict of interest while serving as prime minister prior to 2006.
On the first night of his stay at the Bangkok Remand Prison, corrections doctors determined that he had to be transferred to Police General Hospital because of his serious illnesses. Later his eight-year term was reduced to one year by a royal pardon.
Authorities say Thaksin, 74, met normal parole criteria in that he was over 70 years old, suffering from serious illnesses and had served at least six months of his jail term.
According to regulations, a convict is eligible to parole after serving at least one-third of his jail term or at least six months if the one-third period is less than six months and the remaining term does not exceed 10 years.
Mr Chaithawat noted that Thaksin had not spent a single day in prison, which underscored the concerns the Move Forward Party has about equality in the justice system.
He said he was aware of only three instances involving inmates allowed to be detained outside prison for longer than 120 days. Thaksin was one of them and the two others were mentally ill, the opposition leader said. (Story continues below)
“If (Thaksin) leaves the hospital right away, the reported necessity for him to stay in hospital will be shown to have been untrue,” says opposition leader Chaithawat Tulathon.
At Government House on Thursday, Ms Paetongtarn said that when her father is paroled, her family members will receive him at his residence. If doctors do not need to make continuous checks on Thaksin’s condition, he should be discharged from hospital, she said.
Ms Paetongtarn does not have an MP seat or a cabinet position, but she was at Government House to wish Mr Srettha a happy 62nd birthday.
Chusak Sirinil, the Pheu Thai deputy leader, said that when Thaksin is paroled, he can make political comments because there is not a law to prohibit anyone from political expressions.
“General people have the political freedom to have political opinions,” he said.