Thai court docket acquits ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of royal defamation cost : NPR

BANGKOK — Thailand’s former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was acquitted of a royal defamation cost by a court docket on Friday, in a case that would have despatched him to jail for as much as 15 years.

The 76-year-old Thaksin, smiling as he walked away from the courtroom, was the primary to disclose the decision, responding to journalists’ questions with the only phrase: “Dismissal.”

His lawyer, Winyat Chatmontree, additionally confirmed the acquittal verdict, as did the Bangkok Felony Court docket later in a information launch.

The regulation on defaming the monarchy, an offense referred to as lese majeste, is punishable by three to fifteen years in jail. It’s among the many harshest such legal guidelines globally and more and more has been utilized in Thailand to punish authorities critics.

The authorized help group Thai Attorneys for Human Rights has stated that since early 2020, greater than 270 individuals — lots of them pupil activists — have been charged with violating the regulation.

The court docket’s information launch stated it had discovered the witnesses and proof have been too weak to assist conviction.

Thaksin was initially charged in 2016 over remarks he made a yr earlier to journalists in South Korea. The case was not pursued at the moment as a result of he was in exile and the mandatory authorized procedures couldn’t be accomplished.

The information launch stated the court docket decided that the account of the interview introduced by the prosecution was incomplete and lacked context, and a key level didn’t clearly refer particularly to then-King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

It additionally stated the court docket thought that witnesses within the case in opposition to Thaksin may need been motivated by political bias, as a result of they’ve participated in political protests in opposition to him, leaving open the likelihood they could have unfairly interpreted his phrases.

Thaksin’s opponents, who have been typically staunch royalists, accused him of corruption, abuse of energy and disrespecting then-King Bhumibol, who died in 2016. Thaksin has at all times asserted that the instances in opposition to him have been politically motivated.

When he was indicted final yr, Thaksin’s freedom on bail was authorised with the situation that he couldn’t journey out of Thailand except authorised by court docket. His passport was confiscated.

Regardless of dealing with numerous prosecutions since leaving workplace, Thaksin has spent no time in jail. He was overseas in 2006 when a navy coupousted him. He briefly returned in 2008, solely to return shortly to exile to keep away from a attainable jail time period.

He returned to Thailand in 2023 when the Pheu Thai political occasion that he’s intently related to got here to energy. He was despatched to serve an eight-year jail time period on expenses associated to corruption and abuse of energy however was transferred instantly to a hospital on medical grounds. After six months in a hospital suite, he was granted a pardon and parole and let out.

The choice to ship him to a hospital as a substitute of jail was extensively questioned as as to if he was granted a particular, undeserved privilege. The Supreme Court docket’s Felony Division for Political Workplace Holders will rule subsequent month in one other case that places him in jeopardy of imprisonment.

Since his return, Thaksin has maintained a excessive profile, touring the nation making public appearances and political observations that would upset the highly effective conservative institution that was behind his 2006 ouster.

His daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who grew to become prime minister final yr, can be in sizzling water. She stands accused of failing to deal with in an moral method a June 15 name with Cambodian Senate President Hun Senin which they mentioned tensions over territory claimed by each nations. The Constitutional Court docket suspended her from her duties on July 1 and subsequent week will rule whether or not she’s going to lose her prime minister place for breaching ethics legal guidelines.

Thais have lengthy been accustomed to sudden adjustments of presidency resulting from navy coups, numbering greater than a dozen for the reason that Thirties. However previously twenty years, they’ve more and more seen such adjustments imposed by the courts, which have ousted 4 prime ministers and dissolved three election-winning political events, typically on slender technical grounds.

Typically, the targets have been considered as challengers to the normal royalist institution, whose strongest defenders are the military and the courts.