Thailand's former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was released from prison on parole on Monday, after being sentenced to one year in prison in September 2025 for a past corruption conviction.

The 76-year-old telecommunications billionaire walked free from Klong Prem Central Prison in Bangkok at around 7:40 a.m. local time, greeted by family and hundreds of supporters wearing red shirts of his Pheu Thai party.

The corrections department granted parole in April, citing his age and short remaining sentence. He will be required to wear an electronic monitoring device during his four-month probation period.

Thaksin will return to his family home in Thonburi, south of Bangkok. He was first elected prime minister in 2001, re-elected in 2005, but ousted in a 2006 military coup. He fled Thailand in 2008 after being convicted of conflict of interest, abuse of power, and corruption.

Upon his return in 2023, he was sentenced to eight years in prison but spent only hours in jail before being moved to a hospital due to chest pains. He remained there for six months before the king commuted his sentence to one year.

In August 2025, after his daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra was dismissed as prime minister, a court ruled that Thaksin and his doctors had unnecessarily prolonged his hospital stay, leading to the one-year prison term.

Although his Pheu Thai Party performed poorly in February 2026 elections, it remains part of the governing coalition led by PM Anutin Charnvirakul and his conservative Bhumjaithai Party, which is seen as having strong military and royalist backing.

Source: www.dw.com