Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said he was acquitted of royal defamation by a court on Friday, in a case that could have sent him to prison for up

Thaksin Shinawatra, the billionaire former prime minister of Thailand, remains one of the country's most influential and controversial figures nearly two decades after being ousted in a 2006 military coup.

A Bangkok court has dismissed a case accusing billionaire politician Thaksin Shinawatra of defaming the monarchy. In the first of three court rulings that could decide the fate of a prominent political dynasty,