Detention in VIP hospital not right, Thaksin back to prison for a year

Thailand’s Supreme Court ruled that Thaksin’s 2023 detention in a VIP hospital wing, instead of jail, means his prison sentence was not fully served.

“The defendant knew the facts or was aware of the situation that he was not in critical emergency,” the court said in a statement.

“The defendant only had a chronic illness that could be treated as an outpatient and did not require hospitalisation at the police hospital.”

In 2023, the former leader was briefly sent to jail after his dramatic homecoming from self-exile to serve a sentence of eight years for abuse of power and conflicts of interest while premier from 2001-2006.

But, he was in jail for only a few hours before being transferred to the hospital on medical grounds.

His sentence was commuted to a year by the king and he was released on parole in February 2024 after six months of being detained in hospital.