BANGKOK (Reuters) -Thailand's Supreme Court will decide if billionaire former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra should serve jail time in lieu of the six months he spent in hospital detention for his conviction for conflicts of interest and abuse of power.

The following are facts about the 76-year-old tycoon who has dominated Thai politics for a quarter of a century:

EARLY LIFE AND BUSINESS

- Born in northern Thailand's Chiang Mai province in 1949 into a fourth-generation Chinese Hakka family.

- The son of a local politician, Thaksin graduated from a police academy and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

- He studied in the U.S., earning a master's in criminal justice from Eastern Kentucky University and a doctorate in criminal justice from Sam Houston State University.

- He ran

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