Bangkok
Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Tuesday was transported to prison soon after his return to the country after more than 15 years of self-exile as the Supreme Court issued an 8-year detention order for him. The court’s criminal division for holders of political positions announced that Thaksin has been convicted of an eight-year imprisonment related to his three convictions passed on the 74-year-old in absentia, reports to source. The convictions include a two-year sentence for corruption in a lottery project, a three-year sentence for his involvement in an Export-Import Bank loan for Myanmar case, and a five-year sentence for his role in a mobile phone concession amendment case, according to reports. The former telecom tycoon boarded a private plane in Singapore and landed at Bangkok’s Don Mueang International Airport shortly after 9 a.mHe paid respect to the portrait of the king and queen and then was escorted in a police convoy to the court and taken to the prison. Thaksin was Thailand’s premier from 2001 to 2006 but had been in self-exile abroad since 2008. Thaksin’s long-awaited arrival comes on the same day as a vote in Parliament to choose a new Prime Minister, which will finally break a political deadlock more than three months after the popular Move Forward Party won the general elections, source reported. The Thaksin-backed Pheu Thai party, which came second in the May election, will on Tuesday nominate real estate mogul Srettha Thavisin as the next Prime Minister.
