Kasit: Govt ready to help Sivarak

9/12/2009
Bangkok Post

The Foreign Ministry is ready to file an appeal or seek a royal pardon for convicted Thai spy Sivarak Chutipong, but it is up to his family to decide, Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said on Wednesday.

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday sentenced Mr Sivarak to seven years in prison and a fine of 10 million riel, about 82,000 baht, on a charge of spying.

Sivarak, 31, an employee of Thai-owned Cambodia Air Traffic Services (CATS), was arrested on Nov 12 on charges of stealing state secrets, the flight information of fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra when he visited Phnom Pehn, and giving the information to a Thai diplomat.

Mr Kasit said before visiting the three southern border provinces with visiting Malaysian cabinet ministers in the morning that Sivarak's mother and other family members will decide whether they want the government's assistance.

"We have Thai diplomats in Phnom Penh who are ready to help Mr Sivarak," he said.

However, Sivarak's mother Simarak na Nakhon Phanom blamed Khamrob Palawatwichai, the first secretary to the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh, as being the cause of her son's trouble. She called on him to show responsibility for her son.

Sivarak said in court that Mr Khamrob asked him about Thaksin's flight information, and admitted that he confirmed the flight's arrival to the diplomat.

Foreign Minister Kasit's secretary Chavanond Intarakomalyasut insisted Mr Khamrob had not done anything illegal and had not requested Mr Sivarak to steal anything.

"I believe Mr Khamrob does not have to explain anything to the press," Mr Chavanond said.

However, the Foreign Ministry was always ready to aid Sivarak but his mother would decide if she wanted help from the government or the opposition Puea Thai Party.

"We're all Thais, and helping each other is a good thing," he said.

Reports said Mrs Sivarak had faxed the court's verdict to the Puea Thai Party in the morning, asking former prime ministers Thaksin Shinawatra and Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, who are close associates with Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen, to help her jailed son.