Thai ex-PM Thaksin gets free on parole

Bangkok: Thailand’s former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the Southeast Asian nation’s most controversial politician for more than two decades, was released on parole early Sunday from a Bangkok hospital where he spent six months serving time for corruption-related offences.

The telecoms billionaire was toppled in a 2006 coup but voluntarily returned from self-exile to Thailand in August last year and reported to prison to begin serving an eight-year sentence. Critics charged that the 74-year-old Thaksin’s early release reeked of a deal that short-circuited justice for political reasons. Current Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin expressed congratulations to his predecessor.