Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra now lives in exile in Dubai. Sentenced in Thailand to two years in prison for abuse of office, Thaksin hopes his younger sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, will become the country’s new prime minister in July so he can return home. He talks to SPIEGEL about past mistakes and his country’s political future.

Many consider Thaksin Shinawatra to be phantom-like. For some time, few knew the former Thai prime minister’s whereabouts. At one point the 62-year-old was seen in the Balkans, and then later in Russia. He was spotted in Uganda, South Africa, and repeatedly in Switzerland. Most of the time it appears that Thaksin, who is now a citizen of Montenegro and possesses a Nicaraguan diplomatic passport, resides in Dubai. There, he has a snow-white mansion in the wealthy Emirates Hills district. A Jaguar and a Lexus are parked in front of his home.

Read the interview here….