Billionaire and former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been cleared of charges of violating the country's strict law on royal insults.
"The case was dismissed," Thaksin told reporters with a smile as he left the court house.
Bangkok's criminal court said the evidence was not sufficient to show Thaksin was guilty of the charges, which stemmed from a 2015 interview.
Thaksin, who had denied wrongdoing, appeared at the court with a yellow necktie — the colour associated with Thailand's monarchy.
He 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 seen by royalists as sacrosanct.
Thaksin's case was the highest-profile among more than 280 prosecutions in recent years under the controversial lèse-majesté law, which activists say has been abused by conservatives to silence dissent and sideline political rivals.
Royalists say the law is necessary to protect the crown.
Those convicted under the law face up to 15 years in jail.
Thaksin was deposed in a military coup in 2006, but has remained politically active.
The 76-year-old tycoon is widely seen as the power behind the ruling Pheu Thai party, which is losing popularity and hanging on by a thread over the conflict with neighbouring Cambodia and a stuttering economy.
Thaksin returned to Thailand in 2023 after 15 years abroad in self-imposed exile to serve an eight-year sentence for abuse of power and conflicts of interest, which was reduced to one year by King Maha Vajiralongkorn.
He did not spend a single night in jail, however, and was transferred to the luxury wing of a police hospital on medical grounds, where he remained for six months before being released on parole.
Political dynasty before the courts
Friday's ruling was the first in a series of high-stakes court actions involving the powerful Shinawatra dynasty.
Thaksin's daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra has been suspended from duty as Prime Minister.
Next week, the Constitutional Court is expected to rule on whether she will be dismissed from office for an alleged violation of ethics over a leaked telephone conversation with Cambodia's former leader Hun Sen, in what she said was an attempt to defuse a diplomatic crisis that later spiralled into five days of armed conflict.
Thaksin also faces another key legal test next month.
The Supreme Court is due to decide whether his six-month stint in hospital detention prior to his release on parole in 2024 should count as time served in a jail term for abuse of power and conflicts of interest.
He could potentially be made to serve the time in prison.
ABC/Reuters
