THAILAND’s Former Prime Minister and Business Tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra was released yesterday, on the 18th of February, less than six months after being detained.
Thaksin was immediately arrested shortly after returning to Thailand in August last year.
The 74-year-old billionaire faces charges related to corruption and abuse of power.
The King of Thailand reduced his eight-year sentence to one year in September and was one of the 930 prisoners who were granted parole this week.
Thaksin was eligible to apply for parole after serving at least one-third, or about four months of his amended sentence, as well as due to his age being over 70.
The former prime minister only spent hours in prison and was immediately transferred to a hospital where he stayed for almost six months until he was recently granted parole.
The controversial political figure and business tycoon was ousted from power through a military coup in 2006 and returned to the country last year after spending 15 years in self-imposed exile.
Thaksin is not yet out of the woods after prosecutors recently revived an investigation into whether he violated Thailand’s strict royal defamation laws in 2015 which could lead to the former prime minister getting arrested again.
