Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra visited a temple in Bangkok on Thursday, AFP reported, his first public appearance since he was released on parole in February following his conviction for corruption and abuse of power. .
The 74-year-old former leader, who wore a neck brace, went to pray around 5 a.m. (10 p.m. GMT Wednesday) at the Bangkok City Pillar Shrine.
He then had to fly to Chiang Mai (north), his hometown and political stronghold, to pray at the graves of his loved ones.
The former prime minister and billionaire, in power from 2001 until the 2006 coup, returned from exile on August 22, 2023 after 15 years abroad and was immediately placed in detention - largely in a police hospital in Bangkok due to health problems.
Initially sentenced to eight years in prison for corruption and abuse of power, the former leader benefited in September from a pardon from King Maha Vajiralongkorn who reduced his sentence to one year of imprisonment.
Black beast of the monarchy
Thaksin Shinawatra
“is on parole.
If he gets something that goes beyond the usual rules, the prison services will have to explain
,” declared the spokesperson for the Democratic Party, Ramet Rattanachaweng, notoriously opposed to the former leader.
Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who is due to travel to Chiang Mai from Friday - after returning from official visits to Germany and France - told reporters in Paris that he would meet Mr Thaksin
"if the opportunity presents himself
,” according to public television channel ThaiPBS.
Srettha Thavisin estimated last month that
“all members of the government would be ready to listen”
to the former prime minister.
An old lion of Thai political life, Thaksin maintains influence through his family party, Pheu Thai.
An ultra-popular personality at the start of the 2000s and a bête noire of the monarchy during his years in power, he is suspected of having made a pact with his former adversaries in order to be able to return to Thailand.
He was as much adored by the countryside, thanks to his pioneering redistribution policies, as he was hated by the traditional elites of Bangkok, who found him populist and insolent towards King Bhumibol.