Ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra returns to Thailand after 15 yrs of self-exile

BANGKOK: For the first time after more than 15 years in self-exile, ousted former Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra returned to the country on Tuesday amidst an ongoing political turmoil.

Thaksin, the 74-year-old head of a famed political dynasty and a former owner of Manchester City Football Club, was in office from 2001 until he was ousted in a military coup in 2006 while in New York attending a UN meeting, reports CNN.

He returned to Thailand briefly before fleeing the country in 2008 over a corruption conviction and could face up to 10 years in prison upon his arrival.

Thaksin arrived at Bangkok’s Don Mueang International Airport by a private jet at 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning.

He exited the airport’s private jet terminal some 90 minutes later, greeting a crowd of supporters opposite and bowing to a portrait of Thailand’s king.

Video showed Thaksin hugging his sister Yingluck Shinawatra, who also lives in self-exile, before boarding a plane in Singapore.

Yingluck was elected as Thailand’s first female Prime Minister in 2011, but was dismissed in 2014 after the Constitutional Court ruled she had abused her position.

Thaksin's long-awaited arrival comes on the same day as a vote in Parliament to choose a new Prime Minister, which will finally break a political deadlock more than three months after the popular Move Forward Party won the general elections, CNN reported.

The Thaksin-backed Pheu Thai party, which came second in the May election, will on Tuesday nominate real estate mogul Srettha Thavisin as the next Prime Minister.

On Monday, Pheu Thai struck a deal with its former military rivals in a bid to secure enough parliamentary votes to form a government.

In 2014, former army chief Prayut Chan-o-cha seized power from the Pheu Thai government, and Yingluck followed Thaksin into self-imposed exile.

Prayut has ruled Thailand since, announcing in July that he would not seek re-election and will retire from politics.