Jakrapob declares his return to Thailand after 15 years in self-imposed exile
Former television celebrity and ex-PM’s Office minister Jakrapob Penkair announced that he is returning to Thailand, some 15 years after fleeing Thailand to escape lese majeste charges.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Jakrapop said: “At 7.35am on March 28 [Thursday], I will return to serve Thailand.”
The former minister under then-PM Samak Sundaravej’s regime had to resign in May 2008 after being accused of slandering the monarchy in a speech he delivered at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand on August 29, 2007.
By April 2009, he had fled the country and did not return when the public prosecutor decided in September 2011 to drop the case. However, after the 2014 military coup, the junta-empowered National Council of Peace and Order revived the case and issued a summons for Jakrapob to report to a military base. When the politician refused to show up, an arrest warrant was issued against him for defying the coup maker’s orders.
Then in 2017, the junta accused him of storing an arsenal of firearms to incite strife in the capital. The police had claimed that some of these weapons had come from the same sources as those used during the 2014 political turmoil.
No information was available on whether Jakrapob would face legal action upon returning.
Jakrapob was a popular political talk show host before entering politics. He was the government spokesman for the Thaksin Shinawatra government from 2003 to 2005 and PM’s Office minister for Samak’s government from February 6, 2007, to September 17, 2008.
Jakrapob was also a founding member of the primary red-shirt movement before it was upgraded to the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship.
