Former Thai PM Thaksin indicted on charge of royal defamation as court cases stir political woes

BANGKOK (AP) — Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was granted release on bail hours after he was formally indicted Tuesday on a charge of defaming the country’s monarchy in one of several court cases that have rattled Thai politics.

Thaksin, an influential political figure despite being ousted from power 18 years ago, reported himself to prosecutors Tuesday morning and was indicted, Prayuth Bejraguna, a spokesperson for the Office of the Attorney General, said at a news conference.

A car believed to be carrying Thaksin arrived at the Criminal Court in Bangkok but he did not come out to meet reporters. His lawyer Winyat Chatmontree told reporters that Thaksin was ready to enter the judicial process. The same car left the court a few hours later after Thaksin was granted bail, though again he did not meet with waiting reporters.

A few hours later, the Criminal Court said Thaksin’s bail release was approved with a bond worth 500,000 baht ($13,000) under a condition that he cannot travel out of Thailand unless he receives permission from the court.

A court statement issued later listed several reasons for allowing bail, including Thaksin’s age, his having a permanent address in Thailand and the lack of an objection from the prosecutor. It added that his passport was confiscated.

The law on defaming the monarchy, an offense known as lese majeste, is punishable by three to 15 years in prison. It is among the harshest such laws globally and increasingly has been used in Thailand to punish government critics.

Thaksin, now 74, was ousted by an army coup in 2006 that set off years of deep political polarization. His opponents, who were generally staunch royalists, had accused him of corruption, abuse of power and disrespecting then-King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died in 2016.

He was originally charged with lese majeste in 2016 for remarks he made a year earlier to journalists in South Korea. The case was not pursued at that time because he went into exile in 2008 to avoid punishment from other legal judgments he decried as political.

He voluntarily returned to Thailand last year and was immediately taken into custody for convictions related to corruption and abuse of power, but served virtually all of his sentence in a hospital rather than prison on medical grounds. He was granted release on parole in February.

Thaksin returned to Thailand as the Pheu Thai party, seen as his political machine, joined hands with its longstanding rivals in the conservative establishment to form a government. The minimal punishment that he faced was interpreted as part of a deal to keep the progressive Move Forward party, which finished first in last year’s election, out of power, though no deal was publicly acknowledged.

Thaksin has maintained a high profile and is seen as the unofficial power behind the Pheu Thai-led government. He has traveled the country making public appearances and political observations that could upset powerful figures on the establishment side.

Consequently, prosecution of the long-ago lese majeste case is seen by some analysts as a warning from his powerful enemies that he should tone down his political activities.

His case is just one of the several that have complicated Thai politics since the Pheu Thai government took office after the Senate — a conservative, military-appointed body — successfully blocked Move Forward from taking power last year.

Move Forward is now facing dissolution after the Election Commission asked the Constitutional Court to rule whether it is guilty of attempting to overthrow the system of constitutional monarchy by campaigning to amend the lese majeste law.

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who is from Pheu Thai, meanwhile, is being probed over his appointment of a Cabinet member who had been imprisoned for bribery. If found culpable, Srettha could be forced out of his position.

Thailand’s courts, especially the Constitutional Court, are considered bulwarks of the royalist establishment, which has used them and nominally independent state agencies such as the Election Commission to cripple political opponents.

The Constitutional Court on Tuesday is holding hearings on both Move Forward’s and Srettha’s cases.

The court also ruled on Tuesday that the regulations guiding the partially completed, three-stage voting process to select a new Senate are legal.

The term of the current Senate, appointed by the junta that toppled a previous Pheu Thai government in 2014, expired last month, opening up an opportunity to make its membership more democratic.

The voting process could have been annulled if the court had found it unconstitutional, which would have allowed the military-installed senators to remain on an interim basis until a new process could replace them.

Forty members of the interim Senate were behind the petition against Srettha, a move that is seen as favoring a pro-military political party in the coalition government.

The situation is a stark reminder of the challenges Pheu Thai faces from forming alliances with its old enemiessaid Napon Jatusripitak, a political science researcher and visiting fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. He said it also reflects “a highly lopsided balance of power between elected and unelected forces in Thailand.”

“Thai democracy is once again being held hostage by forces that are unaccountable to public interests,” he said.

___

Follow AP’s Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific

Jintamas Saksornchai, The Associated Press