A car in the motorcade believed to be carrying Thailand's former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra drives by after leaving a private jet terminal at Bangkok's Don Mueang International Airport, after he flew out of the country for what he claimed was a medical check-up in Dubai ahead of a key court case, in Bangkok, Thailand, September 8, 2025. REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's influential former premier Thaksin Shinawatra arrived back in Thailand on Monday, his political party said, a day before a Supreme Court verdict that could potentially send the tycoon to prison.
Thaksin left Thailand unannounced on Thursday, prompting frenzied speculation he had fled into exile to avoid possible jail amid a scramble for power. On Friday, the government led by the Pheu Thai party he backs fell after it lost a vote in parliament to a rival party.
"He has already arrived," Pheu Thai official Chayika Wongnapachant said in a text message to Reuters.
Reuters had earlier published a picture of a smiling Thaksin, 76, exiting the private terminal of Bangkok's Don Meuang airport.
While Thaksin was in Dubai on Friday, where he spent the bulk of his 15 years in self-imposed exile to avoid jail, the Bhumjaithai party's Anutin Charnvirakul was elected Thailand's new prime minister after trouncing the candidate of the once dominant Pheu Thai in a parliamentary vote.
Billionaire Thaksin, who has loomed large over Thai politics for a quarter of a century, could be imprisoned if judges decide that the six months he spent at a VIP wing of a hospital in 2023 instead of jail does not count as time served.
He was in jail for only a few hours before being transferredto the hospital on medical grounds following his return to serve an eight-year sentence for conflicts of interest and abuse of power while premier from 2001-2006.
Thaksin's sentencewas commuted to a year by the king and he was released on parole in February 2024 after six months of being detained in hospital. He has since maintained a high profile as the driving force behind Pheu Thai and the former government.
The looming verdict is the latest in a succession of tests for Thaksin and the Shinawatra political dynasty, whose once unstoppable populist party Pheu Thai has experienced a stunning fall from grace of late, with its political clout weakening and public support plummeting.
Thaksin was dealt a major blow on August 29 when a courtdismissed his daughter and protegePaetongtarn Shinawatra from office, the sixth prime minister from or backed by the Shinawatra familyto be removed by the military or judiciary.
(Reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by John Mair)
