Thailand’s Medical Council reaffirmed on Thursday its decision to sanction three physicians over the treatment of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra following his return from exile, after the health minister tried to veto the punishment.
Thaksin returned to the kingdom in August 2023 and was immediately sentenced to prison on graft and abuse of power charges dating back to his time in office.
But he was sent almost immediately to a private room in Bangkok’s Police General Hospital for health reasons, and was later freed without ever spending a night in a cell.
The medical council, Thailand’s regulatory body for the profession, suspended two doctors and issued a warning to a third last month over medical certificates issued for Thaksin.
Health Minister Somsek Thepsutin of the ruling Pheu Thai party stepped in to overrule, but on Thursday the council voted to uphold the punishment.
Pheu Thai is close to Thaksin, whose daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra is the current prime minister.
Thaksin returned to Thailand after 15 years living overseas on the day Pheu Thai took office at the head of a coalition government, fuelling suspicions of a backroom deal to treat him leniently.
While Thaksin remains popular with his support base, he has long been disliked by Thailand’s pro-royalist and military establishment.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to have a hearing on Friday as it investigates whether Thaksin served his sentence properly.
The former Manchester City owner, ousted as Thai PM in a coup in 2006, is also facing a separate royal defamation case expected to start next month.
The legal dramas come as his daughter’s government wrestles with a border dispute with Cambodia and internal wrangles with fractious coalition partners.
