Defense Politics Asia – > 99
orig date 2023-08-22 03:39:11
06:40 22-08-2023 
BANGKOK/SINGAPORE — Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will return to Thailand on Tuesday after 15 years in exile and around 20 scrapped attempts to come home under a looming prison sentence.
"It's time for me to be with the Thai people," he told Nikkei Asia on Tuesday morning at Singapore's Seletar Airport, confirming that he was heading to Thailand. A private jet carrying Thaksin is expected to land at Don Mueang Airport in Bangkok later in the morning.
His return comes hours before a parliamentary vote to elect a new prime minister, with his Pheu Thai party hoping to form a new government after having brokered a coalition.
Upon his return, Thaksin faces a 12-year prison sentence over charges of graft and corruption, a case that saw him convicted in absentia in 2008.