BANGKOK, April 29 — Former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra will be released on parole on May 11, according to Thailand’s Department of Corrections under the Ministry of Justice on Wednesday.
In a statement, the department said Thaksin, 76, must comply with all conditions until the completion of his probation period.
It said the parole subcommittee convened its fourth meeting of 2026 to consider applications for sentence suspension and approved ordinary parole for Thaksin, subject to the condition that he wear an electronic monitoring (EM) device until the end of his sentence.
“His age and the fact that he has less than a year left to serve justified his early release,” the department said.
The department added that the approval was based on the fact that Thaksin meets all the qualifications under the Corrections Act (2017), Section 52(7), as well as the Ministerial Regulations on the Benefits of Sentenced Prisoners (2019) and its Amendment (No.2) (2021).
It said the parole subcommittee took into account the circumstances of the case, the period of detention, the reliability of the guarantor, the potential impact on public safety, and the prisoner’s rehabilitation and behavioural development while in custody.
“In addition, special grounds supporting the discretionary decision included his age of 70 years or above, with no more than one year of the sentence remaining, evidence of successful rehabilitation and behavioural improvement, and a low risk of reoffending based on formal risk assessment,” it said.
Thaksin is among more than 800 prisoners approved for parole, the department said.
He has been serving a one-year prison sentence for corruption since September last year.
Thaksin was elected prime minister in 2001 and re-elected in 2005, before going into self-imposed exile after his second term was cut short by a military coup.
