Thaksin Shinawatra

September 29, 2025 3:28 PM

Former Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra seeks royal pardon, lawyer says

Thailand's influential former Prime Minster Thaksin Shinawatra has submitted a petition for a royal pardon for his one year jail sentence, his lawyer said on Monday. The former premier was jailed earlier this month after the country's Supreme Court ruled that he did not serve his initial prison sentence after spending six months in a VIP wing of a hospital following his return from 15 years of self-exile in August 2023. Thaksin, 76, was initially sentenced to eight years in jail...

September 9, 2025 2:06 PM

‘I lose my freedom today’: Thailand’s Thaksin jailed in fall from grace

A smiling Thaksin Shinawatra arrived at Thailand's Supreme Court on Tuesday morning in his black and silver Mercedes Maybach luxury sedan, dressed in a dark suit and a yellow tie. But the former Thai prime minister left the court complex bereft of the trappings of power, escorted into a plain silver van by Corrections Department officials, the collar of his white shirt unbuttoned and cuffs folded up. After nearly two decades of dodging punishment, Thailand's most influential and polarising pol...

September 9, 2025 12:57 PM

Thai ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra jailed as court rules hospital stay unlawful

Thailand's influential former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was sent to prison on Tuesday after the Supreme Court ruled his time in hospital detention was an attempt to avoid jail, a major blow for a powerful family that has dominated politics for two decades. The polarising billionaire had spent only a few hours in prison upon his return from 15 years of self-exile in August 2023 before he was hospitalised after complaining of heart trouble and chest pains, prompting widespread scepticism ...

September 5, 2025 5:43 PM

Thailand’s Anutin Charnvirakul elected PM after rout of ruling party rival

Thailand's Anutin Charnvirakul was elected prime minister on Friday after breezing through a parliamentary vote, trouncing the candidate of the Shinawatra family's once-dominant ruling party to end a week of chaos and political deadlock. With decisive opposition backing, Anutin easily passed the threshold of more than half of the lower house votes required to become premier, capping off days of drama and a scramble for power during which he outmanoeuvred the most successful political part...

September 5, 2025 11:17 AM

Thai parliament to vote on new PM, as Thaksin jets off amid chaos

Thailand’s parliament is set to choose a new prime minister on Friday, after days of political chaos, in a vote that could be overshadowed by the dramatic departure from the country of its most powerful politician Thaksin Shinawatra. Polarising billionaire Thaksin, the central figure in a tumultuous two-decade battle for power in Thailand, left on his private jet for Dubai late on Thursday, with his family’s ruling party Pheu Thai in disarray. Thaksin’s flight out of Thailand came only d...

September 4, 2025 6:22 PM

Thailand’s Thaksin Shinawatra faces a political reckoning as Pheu Thai reels

When Sakda Vicheansil, a lawmaker from western Thailand, announced his resignation from the ruling Pheu Thai party in early September, his words reflected the extraordinary decline of the country's most dominant politician, Thaksin Shinawatra. "Thai people across the country, and especially in my constituency - Kanchanaburi, Constituency 4 - are suffering," he said on Facebook. "The government has completely failed to resolve their problems." Former premier Shinawatra, 75, has run a p...

September 3, 2025 10:09 AM

Thailand’s ruling party seeks house dissolution as opposition backs rival’s PM bid

Thai politics were in chaos on Wednesday as the ruling Pheu Thai party said it had sought royal approval to dissolve the parliament for a new election, moments after the biggest group in the house said it would back another party to form a government. The chief whip of the Pheu Thai party, which last week suffered the loss of its prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, to a court ruling, told Reuters the party had decided to forge ahead with seeking a snap election. Moments earlier, the opposi...

August 21, 2025 12:27 PM

Thailand’s Shinawatra dynasty faces triple court test that could upend politics

Thailand's billionaire Shinawatra family is bracing for a series of high-stakes court decisions starting Friday that could test its political resilience, with the prospect of an early election and prolonged trouble for the country's stuttering economy. Thailand's Shinawatra political dynasty has been at the heart of two decades of intermittent turmoil, and its latest battles will culminate in rulings that could unseat Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra for an alleged ethics violation and put...

June 18, 2024 11:21 AM

Formal Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra granted bail in royal insult case

Influential former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a powerful backer of the ruling government, was granted bail by a court on Tuesday, avoiding pre-trial detention for allegedly insulting the monarchy in a 2015 interview. The billionaire sought bail from the Criminal Court of Thailand soon after the Attorney-General had formally charged him under Thailand's lese-majeste law, which carries a maximum jail sentence of up to 15 years for each perceived royal insult. Thaksin denies the c...