DPM: Royal pardon for "Thaksin" is not an urgent issue

BANGKOK, September 6 (TNA) - Thai Deputy Prime Minister Police Captain Chalerm Yubumrung insisted on Tuesday that a move to seek a royal pardon for convicted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is not the new Pheu Thai Party-led government's urgent agenda.

In response to journalists' question whether Thaksin will be among the convicted royally pardoned by His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej on the auspicious occasion of the beloved Thai monarch's 84th birthday on December 5, 2011, Police Captain Chalerm said that he could not give any comment on the issue, as any royal amnesty lies under the mandate of His Majesty the King.

Regarding skepticisms over whether it is necessary for convicted people to serve their legal punishments before seeking a royal pardon, Police Captain Chalerm noted that the condition has not been stipulated in the Thai laws, and that the government, through the Ministry of Justice, is to legally follow any royal pardon granted by His Majesty the King and publicly issued by the Bureau of the Royal Household.

The Pheu Thai deputy premier acknowledged that the 2007 Royal Decree on Royal Amnesty stating that convicted people need to serve legal penalty before seeking a royal pardon is to be applied case by case, and that no petition for any royal pardon has been submitted to him so far.

Meanwhile, new Thai Justice Minister Police General Pracha Promnog said that, according to the Thai laws, all people are eligible to file petitions with His Majesty the King, including the convicted, and that, in principle, no one can stop a process of seeking a royal pardon and the justice minister can submit petitions to His Majesty the King case-by-case.

Thaksin was sentenced to a two-year jail term in 2008 for abusing his political power related to a land purchase by his then wife, Khunying Pojaman na Pombejra and the former Thai premier, who was toppled in a military coup in September 2006, has lived in exile overseas ever since. (TNA)