Thailand's billionaire former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been pardoned by the royal government, cutting his parole period by two weeks, his lawyer said. The pardon came one day after parliament elected his daughter as prime minister.
Thaksin is at the centre of a two-decade-long power struggle between the Shinawatra family and its allies on the one hand and a network of royalists, generals and old-money families who have long wielded influence over the Thai government and institutions on the other.