Ex-Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra released on parole

Former Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra was driven from the hospital to his home (Sakchai Lalit/AP)

Former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been released on parole from a Bangkok hospital where he spent six months serving time for corruption-related offences.

Thaksin was seen wearing a neck support, a sling on his right arm and a surgical mask inside one of the cars in a convoy leaving the Police General Hospital just before sunrise on Sunday.