Thaksin’s parole stirs anger in Thailand at ‘double standards’ across political spectrum

In it, Thaksin sits thoughtfully by a swimming pool at his Bangkok villa, wearing a neck brace with his right arm in a sling.

“Outside feeling the air and sunshine after 180 days … also not back home for 17 years,” said Peatongtarn Shinawatra.

“Dad is just sitting outside like this. He’s been sitting like this for a while #finallyhome.”

He was freed on parole on Sunday after spending six months in a police hospital. But Thaksin still splits the country.

“Thaksin serious illness? Parole? What kind of illness?” prominent conservative Senator Somchai Swangkarn posted on Facebook, with an artificial intelligence-generated animation of a giant inmate crushing the scales of justice, accompanied by the hashtag ‘Stomping on Thailand’s Justice System.’

A day after he was freed, Thaksin faced a new legal hurdle over an investigation into his comment made almost a decade ago that was seen as an insult to the nation’s royals, according to a Bloomberg News report.

Prayut Bejraguna, a spokesman for the Office of the Attorney General, told reporters on Monday that a decision on the matter is still being considered.

Thaksin is still hated by elements of the royalist establishment for his pro-poor policies which upended the elite-crafted political settlement. He remains unforgiven by many critics for re-routing old patronage networks to him and his family’s political parties using what they say was corruption and nepotism and is blamed for years of unrest and social division.

On Monday, another vocal conservative senator, Kittisak Rattanawaraha, said he was “very concerned of conflict and violence if he [Thaksin] continues to be above the law like this”, labelling his return without spending a day in jail a “miracle”.

The Corrections Department