Former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra goes on trial for lese-majeste next week, with the kingdom teetering on the brink of political chaos, as his daughter faces being sacked as prime minister and activists threaten mass protests.
Thailand looks set for a new round of the turmoil that has periodically gripped it over the past two decades, as conservative forces renew their long-running tussle with the Shinawatra dynasty.
The coming weeks would see a series of court hearings that could terminate Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s brief political career and send her father to jail.
Photo: AFP
Thaksin goes on trial from Tuesday, accused of insulting the monarchy, which under Thailand’s strict royal defamation laws could bring a maximum 15-year jail sentence. The allegations stem from an interview he gave in 2015 to a South Korean newspaper.
The trial is set to last three weeks, and a verdict is not expected for at least a month after that.
The lese-majeste laws shield King Maha Vajiralongkorn and his close family from insult or abuse, but critics said the laws are abused to stifle legitimate comment and debate.
Paetongtarn’s government hangs by a thread. Its ruling coalition was slashed to a tiny majority by the departure last week of the conservative Bhumjaithai party in a row over a leaked phone call between the prime minister and former Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen.
In the audio of the call about the border dispute, Paetongtarn makes disparaging reference to a Thai army commander and addresses Hun Sen as “uncle.”
Critics slammed Paetongtarn for insulting the military — a powerful force in Thai politics — and for being too deferential, calling for her to quit.
She apologized last week and managed to shore up her coalition, but now a group of conservative senators has submitted a petition to the Thai constitutional court calling for her to be sacked.
The court might decide on Tuesday whether to accept the case, but court president Nakharin Mektrairat said that it would be up to the nine judges to decide the timeframe.
If the court accepts the case, it might suspend her from office while it considers it, with a ruling expected to take several months.
Paetongtarn’s case and her father’s trial are the latest round in a bitter 25-year arm wrestle between Thailand’s traditional conservative, pro-military, pro-royalist elite and parties linked to Thaksin.
Thaksin was twice elected prime minister in the early 2000s and is still loved by many of the rural voters whose lives were changed by his policies. However, the establishment has long despised him as corrupt, nepotistic and a threat to the kingdom’s long-established social order.
Thaksin was ousted in a coup in 2006, his sister Yingluck Shinawatra had the same fate in 2014 and other prime ministers from their political movement have been sacked by court rulings.
After 15 years abroad, Thaksin returned to Thailand in August 2023.
He was immediately ordered to serve an eight-year jail term for historic graft and abuse of power charges, but was taken to hospital on health grounds and later pardoned by the king.
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