BANGKOK, July 26, 2023 (AFP) – Thailand’s billionaire former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra will return to the kingdom on August 10 after 15 years in self-exile, his daughter said Wednesday.
The 74-year-old tycoon, twice elected premier but ousted by a military coup in 2006, has long spoken of his wish to come home, but faces multiple criminal charges, which he says are politically motivated.
Thaksin is a bogeyman for Thailand’s pro-military and royalist establishment and his return could inflame an already tense political situation.
The kingdom is in political deadlock after the military-dominated Senate blocked the head of the Move Forward Party (MFP) from becoming prime minister after the reformist party won May’s elections.
“I can’t believe what I am about to write. Dad is coming back on Aug 10 at Don Meung airport,” his daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra wrote on her official Facebook page on Wednesday — Thaksin’s birthday.
Paetongtarn was a candidate to become PM for the Pheu Thai party, which came second in the election and is now trying to form a government after MFP was blocked.
“My heart and everyone in our family feel overwhelmed, happy and worried, but we respect dad’s decision,” she wrote.
Days before the May election, Thaksin said on social media that he would return to Thailand “before my birthday” because he was getting old and wanted to spend time with his grandchildren.
He has lived in self-exile, mostly in Dubai, since 2008 but reguarly addresses supporters on the Clubhouse social media platform using the alias Tony Woodsome.
Thaksin was convicted during his time abroad in four criminal cases, one of which has now passed the statute of limitations.
His sentences for the other three total 10 years, while he still under investigation in another case, and in his May message he said he was ready to face justice.
He has long maintained the cases were politically motivated.
On arrival, he is likely to be taken to the Supreme Court and then to a special detention centre before being sent to prison.
Parties linked to Thaksin have dominated Thai politics since 2001, but lost two prime ministers to military coups and another to a court ruling.
