Thai Supreme Court orders Thaksin to serve one year in prison

Thailand's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to serve one year in prison, ruling that his prolonged stay in a police hospital after his return from exile did not count as time served on an earlier conviction. The 76-year-old was ordered to be taken into custody in Bangkok to begin the term after judges concluded his hospital detention was unlawful.

The five-judge panel said Thaksin's transfer to and extended stay in a hospital VIP ward following his August 2023 return from 15 years of self-imposed exile was intentionally prolonged and therefore could not be treated as part of his sentence. Thaksin had been sentenced in 2023 to eight years for abuse of power and conflicts of interest; the king subsequently commuted that term to one year and he was released on parole after spending months in hospital rather than behind bars.

Judges said the defendant knew his condition was not an emergency requiring hospitalization and that his chronic ailments could have been treated as an outpatient or in jail. The court ordered the issuance of a warrant to take Thaksin to a remand facility. Accounts of what happened immediately after the ruling varied. A...