THAKSHIN HITS OUT AT THAI ‘TYRANNY’

Bangkok: Fugitive former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra hit out at “tyranny” on Wednesday via a cryptic tweet quoting a French Enlightenment thinker in his first comments since his sister fled overseas. Yingluck Shinawatra, who like her brother was also booted from office by a coup, dramatically disappeared days before a court was about to deliver judgment in a criminal negligence trial. Party and junta sources say she went to join her brother, who lives in self-exile in Dubai. On Wednesday Thaksin broke a long public silence, issuing tweets in both English and Thai that quoted 18th century French philosopher Charles de Montesquieu. “Montesquieu once said ‘There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice’,” he wrote on his Twitter account. It is the first time Thaksin has used Twitter in more than two years, in an apparent swipe at the military rulers who forced him out of office in 2006 and toppled his sister’s administration in 2014. Yingluck faced up to 10 years in prison and a lifetime ban from politics.