BANGKOK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th July, 2023) Former Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled in a military coup in 2006 and fled abroad, will return to the country on August 10, his daughter said on social media on Wednesday.
"I do not believe that I am going to write this: on August 10 my father will arrive at Don Mueang International Airport," Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who heads the Pheu Thai party family, said on her father's 74th birthday.
The last 18 years of Thai history have been marked by an unprecedented political discord and confrontation between supporters and opponents of the former prime minister and the Shinawatra political family in general. Over this period, military coups have overthrown two governments, formed by members of the Shinawatra political clan. Mass protests from 2007-2014 have caused multiple clashes and bloodshed. Pheu Thai party, created by the former prime minister's supporters, has been the main opposition party of the Thai parliament's previous convocation. Now, after winning 2023 parliamentary elections, it is one of the two parties forming the government.
Thaksin Shinawatra served as Thai prime minister from 2001-2006. He was overthrown in a military coup on September 19, 2006 and barred from political activity as his government faced allegations of corruption, authoritarianism and muzzling of the press. He was sentenced in absentia to two years in jail for abuse of power and has been living in self-imposed exile. As of 2009, Shinawatra was reportedly living in Dubai and investing in gold mines, diamond polishing and lottery licenses in various countries. Over 2023, the former prime minister has said on multiple occasions that he was ready to return to Thailand to raise his grandchildren despite the threat of imprisonment.
