Convicted Thai spy released from Cambodian jail

Monday, December 14, 2009
AFP

PHNOM PENH — Cambodia Monday released a Thai man convicted and then pardoned for spying on Thailand's fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, witnesses and officials said.

The release of Siwarak Chothipong came as Thaksin paid a visit to Cambodia that could inflame diplomatic tensions between Bangkok and Phnom Penh. Thaksin visited Siwarak briefly in prison Sunday.

Siwarak, 31, a Thai employee of the Cambodia Air Traffic Service, left Prey Sar prison early in the morning in a convoy of three cars after receiving a pardon from King Norodom Sihamoni on Friday, witnesses said.

Siwarak was initially sentenced to seven years in jail for supplying Thaksin's flight schedule to the Thai embassy when the former prime minister visited Cambodia last month.

After his release, Siwarak went to a ceremony at the home of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to be presented with his signed royal pardon.

"From now on Siwarak has freedom and can carry out any business," Hun Sen said in front of reporters at the ceremony, which was also attended by Siwarak's mother and members of Thailand's main opposition party.

Thaksin was expected to arrive at Hun Sen's home later and join the ceremony.

Siwarak's arrest deepened a diplomatic crisis over Cambodia's appointment of Thaksin as an economic adviser, and its refusal to extradite the ousted leader to Thailand when he travelled to Phnom Penh last month.

Thaksin, who was ousted in a coup in 2006 and faces a two-year jail term in Thailand for corruption, landed in Phnom Penh Sunday.

The Thai government said it would press anew for his extradition, but Cambodian foreign ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said such a demand would be "just a waste of time".

Billionaire telecoms mogul Thaksin is living abroad, mostly in Dubai, to avoid the jail term handed down by a Thai court in absentia in September 2008.

Thaksin won two elections in Thailand and remains an influential political figure at home, stirring up mass protests by his "Red Shirt" supporters against the current government.