00:00 The Thai Ministry of Justice announced that former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinrawat is now eligible
00:05 for parole after serving six months of his sentence and for being over 70 years of age.
00:11 However, for context, we have to take a step back to August of 2023 when Mr. Shinrawat returned to
00:17 Thailand to face justice for stemming from abuse of power charges related to his time as Prime
00:23 Minister. However, as you mentioned, upon his return, his initial sentence of eight years was
00:28 drastically reduced to just one year by royal pardon. And then after receiving a very brief
00:35 medical intake at the prison here in Bangkok, he was shuffled off to the VIP unit of a police
00:40 hospital where he has remained largely hidden from the public and the media since, which has led to
00:46 some outrage about whether or not he's actually even there or if there's any transparency into
00:51 the visibility or any visibility into this so-called justice being served. However, what we now know is
00:58 that regardless of that, as you said, he could be released as early or will be released as early as
01:03 February 17th this weekend. So on or around there is when we expect to see him leave the hospital.
01:09 Now, he did come back from self-imposed exile just six months ago.
01:14 What can you tell us about the timings of all of these latest developments?
01:18 He did come back just last year, and this morning, the Prime Minister has also confirmed
01:27 that he has been granted that parole. And the reaction to this is quite interesting,
01:32 because a lot of people are actually seeing injustice in this. Mr. Thaksin was convicted
01:37 of abuse of power. However, he's been accused of far worse, including human rights abuses stemming
01:43 from his drug war in Thailand's deep south, which saw many thousands of people disappear and also
01:49 has led to a conflict that is still ongoing today, 20 years later. And so the current Prime Minister
01:56 did say that Mr. Thaksin would return as an ordinary citizen. However, that seems very
02:01 unlikely to me, because he is not nearly as popular as he once was. And a lot of people
02:07 would like to see the upper echelon in Thailand receive justice, and he is representative of that.
02:13 And so the outrage just continues to grow every time this type of thing happens, especially with
02:19 regard to Mr. Thaksin, who is such a visible public figure and has been, even during his time
02:25 in exile, he was on social media. And it's expected that, of course, he will continue to
02:31 advise his daughter, Phe Thong Thanh-Sinawat, who is on a path towards leadership in this party,
02:36 who is currently in control of the government.
