Former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was released from Klong Prem Central Prison on parole on Monday, hugging family members and greeting several hundred supporters who had gathered outside the jail.
The 76-year-old telecommunications billionaire had been ordered by the Supreme Court in September 2025 to serve a one-year sentence for past corruption convictions. Corrections officials said in April that he would be granted early parole because of his age and because he had less than a year left to serve. He walked out of prison at about 7:40 a.m. local time and will spend four months on probation wearing an electronic monitoring device. He is expected to return to the Shinawatra family home in Thonburi, south of Bangkok.
Thaksin remains a polarizing figure in Thai politics. He first rose to power on a populist platform in 2001 and was re-elected in 2005 before being ousted in a military coup in 2006. He fled Thailand in 2008 after being convicted of conflict of interest, abuse of power and corruption during his time in office.
When Thaksin returned to Thailand in 2023 he was initially given an eight-year prison sentence but was moved to hospital after reporting chest pains and spent several months there. A royal commutation later reduced his sentence to one year. After his daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, was dismissed as prime minister in August 2025, a court found that Thaksin and his doctors had unnecessarily prolonged his hospital stay, and he was ordered to serve the remaining one-year term.
Supporters in red shirts chanted as he was freed. Despite Pheu Thai, the party long associated with Thaksin, performing poorly in the February 2026 election, it remains part of the governing coalition. The current government is led by Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul of the conservative Bhumjaithai Party, which is viewed as having close ties to Thailand’s military and royalist establishment.
Thaksin’s extended family continue to hold roles in public life: his nephew Yodchanan Wongsawat serves as minister of higher education, and his daughter Paetongtarn remains a prominent political figure. After visiting him in prison last week, Paetongtarn told reporters they had spoken about family matters and had not discussed politics.