Jakrapob declares his return to Thailand after 15 years in self-imposed exile

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.