BANGKOK ¨C Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was cleared Friday of royal defamation charges, relieving one of the threats to his embattled dynasty, which has dominated the nation¡¯s politics for two decades.
Thaksin¡¯s family has long jousted with the nation¡¯s pro-military, pro-monarchy elite, who view their populist movement as a threat to Thailand¡¯s traditional social order.
Their tenure as a defining force in Thai politics has unfolded in a saga of coups, street protests and court cases as they have grappled for the kingdom¡¯s levers of power.
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