Hearings in Thaksin’s royal insult trial to begin in July 2025

BANGKOK - Former Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra appeared in a Bangkok court on Aug 19 over a royal insult case against him, just days after his daughter became Thailand’s new prime minister.

Thaksin, accompanied by his lawyers, went into the court clad in a yellow shirt, a colour that symbolises loyalty to the monarchy.

His court appearance came a day after he received a royal amnesty that ended his commuted one-year sentence in corruption cases, allowing him to walk free two weeks earlier than the end of his parole. 

The two-time former prime minister and the de facto leader of the ruling Pheu Thai Party was indicted in June by prosecutors under the stringent lese majeste law that protects the royal family from criticism, and a cyber-crime law. 

“There’s not much to it,” Thaksin said in brief remarks to reporters when he arrived at the court. “This case came about shortly after the coup so it’s about the coup-makers using the law to tighten power.”

The charges against Thaksin, 75, stemmed from an interview he gave in Seoul in 2015 in the wake of a coup that dislodged his sister Yingluck Shinawatra’s government a year earlier.

Prosecutors deemed his comments to have breached Article 112 of Thailand’s Penal Code, which carries a maximum jail term of 15 years for each offence of defaming the monarchy. 

Thaksin is out on bail but has been barred from travelling outside the country without the court’s permission. 

He denied the charges on Aug 19 and submitted a list of 14 witnesses to the court as well as other evidence, his lawyer Winyat Chatmontree said. The prosecution has enlisted 10 witnesses, he said.

The witnesses will be summoned for questioning over seven separate hearings in July 2025, which Thaksin plans to attend, Mr Winyat said.

On Aug 19, Thaksin’s legal team argued that the video of the interview in question had been edited to mislead viewers and the clip could not be verified in its entirety.

Political deal

Ms Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Thaksin’s youngest daughter, on Aug 16 won the parliamentary vote to be Thailand’s new premier.

Ms Paetongtarn was picked for the premier post after the country’s Constitutional Court dismissed Mr Srettha Thavisin in an ethics violation case, cutting his time in office to less than a year. 

Thaksin returned to Thailand from a 15-year exile the same day Mr Srettha became the prime minister in 2023 – events seen as part of a deal that the former leader cut with the royalist establishment to help pro-military and conservative parties stay in power after nearly a decade of military-backed rule under a former army chief. 

The truce brought an end to the conflict that had shaped Thai politics for the past two decades.

But Mr Srettha’s dismissal and the lese majeste persecution against Thaksin have raised fresh questions over whether the agreement would really hold. BLOOMBERG