Former Thai PM Thaksin to face trial over royal insult, computer crime: prosecutors

Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will be indicted for royal insult and computer crime, prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Thaksin's indictment is rescheduled for June 18, following a request to postpone his original appointment on Wednesday with proof that he has contracted COVID-19, said Prayut Phetcharakhun, spokesman for the Office of the Attorney General.

The decision came as the police alleged that the comments Thaksin made during his interview with foreign media in 2015 violated lese majeste and computer crime laws.

The lese-majeste law, or Section 112 of the Criminal Code, stipulates that whoever defames, insults or threatens the king, the queen, the Heir-apparent or the regent, shall be punished with imprisonment of three to 15 years.

The 74-year-old former prime minister returned to Thailand from self-exile last year and was previously convicted of multiple charges. He was released on parole in February from a police hospital in Bangkok, where he spent six months serving a one-year prison sentence.

Thaksin served as the Southeast Asian country's prime minister from 2001 to 2006 and had been in self-exile abroad since 2008.