The Thai government is facing growing anger among its own supporters as well as protests by an emboldened opposition over a far-reaching amnesty bill that could allow former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to return home by wiping clean corruption cases against him.
The amnesty bill, proposed by Mr. Thaksin's party, easily passed one house of the bicameral Parliament on Friday.
Mr. Thaksin, a billionaire tycoon, was ousted by the military in a September 2006 coup and later sentenced in absentia to two years in prison for abuse of power.
If passed, the law might also restore to Mr. Thaksin part of his fortune that a court seized in 2010 on the ground that the money had been illegally obtained through his political influence.
"There's no other place in the world where this would happen," Abhisit Vejjajiva, a former prime minister and the leader of the opposition Democrat Party, told thousands of protesters who gathered in Bangkok on Saturday night. "The government is saying you can commit corruption and it will not be considered an offense and you won't be punished."