Three blankets to sleep with, an open bathing area, bland food and the constant risk of violence. These are the conditions inside the maximum security prison in Thailand's capital where 76-year-old former premier Thaksin Shinawatra is jailed, according to two people with knowledge of the facility.
Once one of Thailand's richest and most powerful men, Thaksin was ordered on Tuesday to serve a year in jail by the Supreme Court, which determined that the billionaire had wrongfully spent time in a hospital in lieu of prison.
Thaksin's initial eight-year sentence for conflicts of interest and abuse of power while Prime Minister from 2001-2006 was commuted to one year, following his homecoming from self-exile in August 2023.
He was released on parole in February 2024, after just six months of detention, the entirety of which he had spent in the VIP wing of a hospital.
Since then, he has lived in a high-fenced, suburban mansion in Bangkok, often ferried around the city in a black and silver Mercedes-Maybach sedan and flown out of the country in a private jet.
