Thaksin returned to Thailand in August after practically 16 years of self-imposed exile.

Thailand’s jailed former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has left the hospital the place he spent six months in detention following his return to the dominion after greater than 15 years of self-imposed exile.

Thaksin, sporting a neck brace and a surgical masks, was seen early on Sunday in a automobile leaving the Police Basic Hospital in central Bangkok.

Thaksin was taken to his dwelling in western Bangkok, the place a banner with the phrases “Welcome dwelling” and “We’ve been ready for at the present time for thus so lengthy” was hanging on the entrance gate.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin mentioned earlier this week that Thaksin, who was jailed for eight years on corruption costs earlier than his sentence was decreased to at least one 12 months by King Maha Vajiralongkorn, can be launched on parole.

The precise particulars of Thaksin’s parole are unclear however the return of his Pheu Thai celebration to energy in a coalition with the pro-military Palang Pracharath Get together and United Thai Nation has fuelled rumours {that a} backroom deal was struck to scale back his time in jail, which the federal government has denied.

Thaksin, a towering however divisive presence in Thai politics for greater than twenty years, led Thailand between 2001 and 2006 when his authorities was toppled in a army coup.

After convictions for abuse of energy and different offences whereas in workplace, Thaksin spent practically 16 years in self-imposed exile abroad earlier than returning dwelling in August to cheering crowds to serve his sentence.

Inside hours of his return, Thaksin was moved from jail to the police hospital to obtain remedy for unspecified well being points.

Even after he fled the nation in 2008, Thaksin’s allies continued to be a significant drive in Thai politics, together with his sister Yingluck Shinawatra serving because the nation’s first feminine prime minister from 2011 till 2014.

Thaksin’s parole caps a interval of reconciliation between his populist motion and the nation’s conservative, royalist institution, which have been locked in a heated rivalry that has consumed Thai politics for many years.

Thaksin’s populist platform appealed to rural Thais who had lengthy felt uncared for by the nation’s ruling elites.

The previous telecoms tycoon was additionally accused of significant human rights abuses amid a violent battle within the nation’s largely Muslim southern provinces and a “medicine warfare”, which killed 1000’s.