DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY, Retired politician and billionaire businessman was accused of violating Thailand’s strict laws on insults to Thai royalty.A court in Thailand has dismissed a high-profile case against the country’s former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra over allegations he violated the country’s strict laws on royal defamation, the billionaire and his lawyer said.“The case was dismissed,” Thaksin told reporters with a smile as he left the court following the verdict on Friday.“The court dismissed the charges against Thaksin, ruling that the evidence presented was insufficient,” his lawyer Winyat Chatmontree said.The criminal court in Bangkok later confirmed it had dismissed the case due to a lack of evidence.The case was brought by the royalist military alleging Thaksin, 76, had violated Thailand’s strict lese-majeste law during a 2015 interview with foreign media when he commented on a 2014 military coup that overthrew his sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, as prime minister.Thaksin denied wrongdoing and has repeatedly pledged allegiance to the king, who is enshrined in the Thai constitution as being in a position of “revered worship”, with the palace viewing support for the monarchy as sacrosanct.Thaksin’s case was the highest-profile among more than 280 prosecutions in recent years under the controversial lese-majeste laws, which activists say have been abused by conservatives to silence dissent and sideline political rivals.Thailand’s royalists say such laws are necessar …
