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Thailand's fugitive ex-PM Shinawatra arrested, charged after return from years-long exile

22 August 2023 09:16 (UTC +04:00)

Thailand's Supreme Court on Tuesday sentenced former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to eight years of imprisonment, APA reports citing Deutsche Welle

Thaksin's jail sentence relates to three convictions passed on him in absentia, the court said in a statement.

Thaksin was quickly arrested and taken to the Supreme Court after he returned to Thailand on Tuesday, after 15 years in exile. His arrival and prison sentence comes just hours after Thailand's bicameral parliament will vote to appoint his party's candidate as the new prime minister.

He was sentenced to jail for three different cases of — abuse of power and malfeasance, illegally ordering a state-run bank to issue a foreign loan, and illegally holding shares via nominees.

Hundreds of people had gathered to see Shinawatra, a business tycoon-turned-politician, as he arrived in Thailand at 9 a.m. local time (0200 GMT) at Bangkok's Don Mueang airport. He had boarded a private jet from Singapore.

Just a couple of hours before his arrival, his sister, Yingluck Shinawatra — who is also a former Thai prime minister — shared pictures and a video of him boarding the plane on Facebook.

"The day my brother has waited for has arrived," she posted, alongside images of him on a plane. In a video also posted, Thaksin can be seen shaking hands with the crew before boarding the private jet.