According to report, Thailand’s former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will be charged for insulting the monarchy, according to the country’s attorney-general.
The controversial political leader, who returned to Thailand last year after 15 years in exile, faces charges over an interview he gave to a Korean newspaper nine years ago.
Thaksin is the most high-profile figure to be charged under Thailand’s lese majeste law, which has been extensively used against political dissidents. Hundreds of people have been charged in the past four years alone.
According to BBC News, Thaksin’s return last year seemed to signal a possible end to the long-standing rivalry between his family and conservative groups wary of his populist leadership style. His party was allowed to form a coalition government with some political opponents to exclude the youthful reformist party Move Forward, which had won the most votes and seats in the 2023 election.
However, the decision to indict the 74-year-old former premier under the strict lese majeste law indicates he still has enemies within Thailand’s powerful royalist establishment. The charges relate to a 2015 interview in which Thaksin accused the king’s top advisory body, the privy council, of helping engineer the 2014 military coup that ousted an administration led by his sister, Yingluck Shinawatra.
Yingluck Shinawatra, elected in the 2011 general election, led Thailand for three years before being ousted by the coup. The privy council is not technically covered by the lese majeste law, but the law has often been broadly interpreted to include any opinion that might reflect negatively on the royal family.
However, more than 270 people have been charged under the law since mass protests four years ago, during which the monarchy faced unprecedented public criticism.
Thaksin’s lawyers are, however, confident of defending him in court, but the indictment may force him to limit his political ambitions during the typically protracted period before trial.
(Nation)