- Thailand has strict royal defamation laws.
- Thaksin, who served twice as prime minister, experienced ousting in a 2006 coup.
- Thaksin denies the charge and has written to the attorney general for fair treatment.
Thailand has some of the world’s strictest royal defamation laws protecting King Maha Vajiralongkorn and his close family, with each charge carrying a potential 15-year prison sentence.
Thaksin, a controversial billionaire who served twice as prime minister but was ousted in a 2006 coup, returned from self-exile in August last year and was immediately jailed on old graft and abuse-of-power charges.
Almost immediately, authorities transferred the 74-year-old to a police hospital where he had undergone at least two operations.
Prayuth Pecharakun, spokesman for the attorney general’s office, informed reporters that police filed lese majeste charges late last month against Thaksin, regarding comments he made in Seoul in 2015.
Prosecutors will wait for police to complete their investigation before deciding whether to proceed with the case against Thaksin, Prayuth stated.
Thaksin denies the charge and has written to the attorney general asking for fair treatment, according to Prayuth.
Thaksin returned to Thailand at the same time his Pheu Thai party regained power in a controversial deal with pro-military parties. The timing sparked rumors of a backroom deal to aid Thaksin, with speculation further fueled when the king reduced his jail sentence from eight years to one year just days later.
Despite millions of rural Thais loving him for his populist policies in the early 2000s, the country’s royalist and pro-military establishment reviles Thaksin, and they have spent much of the past two decades attempting to keep him and his allies out of power.
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