Thailand’s former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will be indicted on charges of insulting the monarchy, according to the country’s attorney-general.
The controversial political leader, who returned to Thailand last year after 15 years in exile, is being charged over an interview he gave to a Korean newspaper nine years ago.
He is the most high-profile figure to face charges under Thailand’s notorious lese majeste law, which has been used extensively against political dissidents.
In the last four years alone, hundreds of people have been charged under this law.
A significant figure in Thai politics, Mr. Thaksin’s return last year seemed to signal an end to the intense political rivalry between his family and the conservative groups wary of his populist leadership style.
In what appeared to be a grand bargain, Thaksin’s party was allowed to form a coalition government with some of his political opponents to keep out the youthful reformist party Move Forward, which had won the most votes and seats in the 2023 election.
However, the decision to indict the 74-year-old former premier under the stringent lese majeste law indicates that he still has enemies within Thailand’s powerful royalist establishment.
The charges stem from an interview he gave to a Korean newspaper in 2015 while he was in exile, in which he accused the king’s top advisory body, the privy council, of helping engineer the 2014 military coup that ousted an administration led by his sister Yingluck Shinawatra.
Yingluck, elected in the 2011 general election, led Thailand for three years before being deposed by the coup.
While the privy council is not technically covered by the lese majeste law, it has increasingly been interpreted to encompass any opinion that might reflect negatively on the royal family.
Since mass protests four years ago, during which the monarchy faced unprecedented public criticism, more than 270 people have been charged under the law.
Thaksin’s lawyers are confident of defending him in court; however, the typically lengthy period before he goes to trial may force him to limit his political ambitions.