Thailand: King frees 35,000 prisoners amid the Covid-19 crisis
King Rama X of Thailand.
AP - Sakchai Lalit
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
King Rama X celebrates his birthday, releasing thousands of prisoners.
This is both to relieve the Thai prison system in the grip of a strong Covid-19 epidemic and to heal its popularity rating.
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With our correspondent in Bangkok,
Carol Isoux
35,000 prisoners were granted immediate exit permission.
A total of 200,000 received a reduced sentence.
While the tradition of releasing prisoners for the royal anniversary has been held annually in Thailand since very ancient times, this year the number of released prisoners is particularly large.
It is above all a question of relieving the prison system where tens of thousands of prisoners have been infected in recent weeks, of making room in the cells, at least enough to be able to separate healthy and infected prisoners.
It is also a question of securing a certain popularity, which the current sovereign really needs.
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To read also: Thailand: a year later, the pro-democracy movement is back on the streets
Growing anger of the population
The calamitous management of the third wave of Covid-19, the inability of the government to provide vaccines to the population are the subject of growing anger.
This Wednesday, Rama X's birthday, yellow clothes, the color that celebrates royalty, traditionally worn massively by Thais for the sovereign's birthday, were scarce in the streets of the country.
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See also: Thailand: the management of the Covid-19 disputed on social networks
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