BANGKOK: Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Saturday he was ready to face charges of insulting the monarchy that mark a setback to a political heavyweight whose allies are currently in government.
The complaint, lodged by the royalist military that ousted the government of his sister Yingluck Shinawatra, stems from an interview the influential tycoon gave to foreign media in 2015. Other charges include violating a computer crime law.
Thaksin said he would meet prosecutors on June 18, but he was not concerned about the case and was ready to fight it.
“It’s nothing. The case is baseless,” he told reporters.
Thaksin, 74, denies wrongdoing and has repeatedly pledged loyalty to the crown, criticism of which is forbidden under Thailand’s controversial lese-majeste law, one of the strictest of its kind around the world.
His is the most high-profile case among more than 270 prosecutions in recent years under the law, which carries a maximum jail term of 15 years for each perceived insult against the royal family.
Thaksin founded the populist Pheu Thai party and his family’s parties have won all but one election since 2001, with three Shinawatra governments toppled by coups or court rulings.
The billionaire returned to Thailand in 2023 from 15 years of self-imposed exile, when he remained a central figure during repeated bouts of political upheaval.
He was convicted of abuse of power and conflicts of interest and sentenced to eight years in prison, later commuted to one year by the king. He was released on parole in February after just six months in detention.
Pheu Thai leads the current government, with Thaksin’s business ally Srettha Thavisin serving as prime minister and his daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the party’s chief.
Thai ex-PM Thaksin says ready to face royal insult charges
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Thai ex-PM Thaksin says ready to face royal insult charges
- The complaint stems from an interview the influential tycoon gave to foreign media in 2015
- Thaksin said he would meet prosecutors on June 18, but he was not concerned about the case and was ready to fight it
UN envoy hopeful on Cyprus, says multi-party summit premature
- Holguin said she was hopeful after meeting with Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman
- “While encouraging, the dialogue process between both leaders is at its early beginning”
NICOSIA: The key UN envoy seeking to break a deadlock in Cyprus’s long-running division said she was cautiously optimistic about a breakthrough but that it would be premature to convene a multi-nation summit on the conflict.
In an interview with Cyprus’s Phileleftheros daily, envoy Maria Angela Holguin said she was hopeful after meeting with Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on December 11. She said their discussion, which agreed to focus also on confidence-building, was “deep, sincere and very straightforward.”
“While encouraging, the dialogue process between both leaders is at its early beginning. More will need to be done in order to strengthen the nascent momentum and establish a real climate of trust that would allow the Secretary-General to convene a 5+1 informal meeting,” said Holguin, a former Colombian foreign minister.
A 5+1 meeting would be an informal summit of the two Cypriot communities with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and representatives of Britain, Turkiye and Greece to define how to move forward and break a seven-year stalemate in peace talks. The three NATO nations are guarantor powers of Cyprus under a treaty which granted the island independence from Britain in 1960.
A power-sharing administration of Cypriot Greeks and Turks crumbled in 1963. Turkiye invaded the north of the island in 1974 after a brief coup engineered by the military then ruling Greece. The island has been split on ethnic lines ever since.
Turkish Cypriots live in a breakaway state in the north, while Greek Cypriots in the south run an internationally recognized administration representing the whole island in the European Union.
