The Tamesis
Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra (right) hugs his daughter, former Prime Minister Pethondan, after being paroled from a prison in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, May 11, 2026.
AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit
Thai billionaire and former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was released from prison on Monday morning after serving an eight-month sentence on corruption and abuse of power charges.
Thaksin, 76, was paroled. He will have to wear an electronic monitoring device and comply with certain parole conditions for the next four months until the end of his sentence on September 9, the Probation Department said in a statement on Monday.
“It’s not surprising, the market hasn’t really reacted to this factor,” said Piriyapon Kongvanich, investment strategist at Bualuang Securities in Bangkok. “I think Thai politics are pretty stable at the moment and don’t expect any imminent threats to domestic political stability,”
Thailand’s benchmark Stock Exchange index closed down 0.7% at 1,489.29 points on Monday.
The veteran politician has been in jail since September after the Supreme Court ruled he must serve a year behind bars to complete a 2023 sentence on corruption and abuse of power charges.
The court found that the former prime minister’s admission to a police hospital for an alleged serious illness was illegal, but the time ended up counting towards his sentence.
In August 2025, the Constitutional Court dismissed his daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, as prime minister, citing ethical violations after only one year in office. Thaksin’s youngest daughter is the third member of the Shinawatra family to be removed from office before the end of his term. Thaksin’s sister Yingluck Shinawatra was dismissed by the Constitutional Court in 2014 after three years in office on charges of abuse of power.
A general election was held in February. The Phuket Pheu Thai Party, which was supported by conservative royalists and nationalists, won the election and formed a new coalition government with several parties close to Thaksin, including the Pheu Thai Party.
Bhumjaithai Party leader Anutin Charnvirakul was subsequently elected as the country’s prime minister. The party gained support among nationalists in 2025 as tensions rose along the Thai-Cambodian border and military clashes intensified.
Thaksin, one of Thailand’s richest men with a net worth of $1.6 billion, was ousted in a 2006 military coup and spent more than a decade in self-imposed exile, mostly in Dubai. Upon his return in 2023, he was sentenced to eight years in prison but received a royal pardon, reducing his sentence to one year. He then spent six months in hospital before being paroled.
