By Montira RUNGJIRAJITTRANON Thailand's divisive ex-leader Thaksin Shinawatra returned to the kingdom Tuesday, after 15 years in exile and hours
Thailand’s divisive ex-leader Thaksin Shinawatra returned to the kingdom Tuesday, after 15 years in exile and hours before parliament votes for a new prime minister.
The former Manchester City owner was led away by officials to face arrest on old criminal cases, in the latest act in the kingdom’s rolling political drama. Thaksin has said he is prepared to face justice in order to return to his homeland and see his grandchildren — though he has long maintained the criminal charges against him are politically motivated.
“I am a real Red Shirt — whenever they want our support, I will always be there for them,” Karuna Wantang, 70, a retired bureaucrat from Nongkai, in the country’s northeast, told AFP.Thaksin has been convicted in four criminal cases in his absence, although the statute of limitations has expired in one. The jail sentences against him total 10 years.
Loved by the rural poor for policies including cheap healthcare and the minimum wage, he is reviled by the pro-military and royalist elite who saw his rule as corrupt, authoritarian and a threat to Thai social order.
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