Thailand’s former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was released on parole on Monday after serving eight months in jail for an abuse of power conviction, a return to the spotlight for a tycoon formerly at the fulcrum of Thai politics but whose two-decade spell over the electorate appears to have evaporated.
Looking slimmer with a short trimmed haircut, the 76-year-old was greeted with hugs by his three children, including daughter and former prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, and roses from his “red shirt” supporters as he left the Bangkok prison where he had been held since September last year.
The billionaire emerges into a changed political landscape.
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His once unassailable political vehicle – Pheu Thai – is now a minority coalition member in Anutin Charnvirakul’s government after coming third in a February election, its worst result since its inception.
In a political career that threads through the modern history of Thailand, Thaksin was twice prime minister after winning landslide elections in 2001 and 2005 with pro-poor policies.
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