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Thailand’s former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra will be freed after serving just six months of an eight-year jail term for graft and abuse of power, the government said on Tuesday.
It was the second concession granted to the former leader since his return from exile last year.
The 74-year-old Thaksin, who was ousted by the military in 2006, was included in a list of 930 people who were granted clemency and could be released as early as Sunday, media reported.
“Thaksin was prime minister for many years and did many good things for the country for a long time. After he comes out, he would be a normal citizen,” Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said, according to Reuters.
Thaksin has been a central figure in Thai politics for two decades and is an ally of Srettha, who belongs to the Pheu Thai party that is in effect controlled by the powerful Shinawatra family.
As prime minister Thaksin, a police officer-turned-telecoms magnate, was popular among the working class though reviled by the military and Thailand’s elite. Thaksin was a populist leader and accused of overseeing rights abuses including a bloody “war on drugs”.
He was ousted in 2006 while in New York and convicted in absentia in 2008 of corruption, conflict of interest and abuse of power — charges that he has denied.
His younger sister Yingluck Shinawatra won the 2011 election but was also ousted by the military in 2014.
Thaksin made a dramatic return to Thailand last year from a self-imposed exile amid months of uncertainty following a general election in May. His return was seen by analysts as part of a deal with the military, with his homecoming coinciding with the election of Srettha as prime minister by the country’s parliament.
Pheu Thai finished second in the general election behind the progressive Move Forward party, which won on the back of promises to reform the military and monarchy. But Move Forward’s leader, Pita Limjaroenrat, failed to win the backing of Thailand’s conservative military-royalist establishment.
