Upon his arrival, Thaksin was ordered by the Supreme Court to serve a total of eight years in jail for his role in three corruption cases. He is lodged in an isolated room of a prison hospital in Bangkok due to his health issues, and will remain in a five-day quarantine, officials said.
Back in 2008, the last time Thaksin Shinawatra stepped foot in Thailand, he was adored among the nation’s poorer masses and widely despised by the royalist elite who backed his removal in a coup two years earlier.
On Tuesday, the former prime minister returned to Thailand after his political allies cut a deal with the same military-backed establishment that spent years overturning his party’s election victories through coups and court decisions. He bowed before a portrait of Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn and then waved to hundreds of supporters clad in red at Bangkok’s Don Mueang airport, with some chanting “We Love Thaksin!” and “Thaksin, Keep Fighting!”
