Monday, December 14, 2009

Convicted Thai spy released from Cambodian jail


Sivarak Chutipong (right), who was convicted last week of spying on Thaksin Shinawatra last month and pardoned on Friday, was released from Prey Sar prison on Monday in a ceremony held at Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen's (left) residence in Phnom Penh.


Cambodia on Monday released a Thai engineer convicted and then pardoned for spying on ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, witnesses and officials said.


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

Mr Sivarak, 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.

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

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

Thaksin, who has arrived back in Cambodia, was expected to arrive at Hun Sen's home later and join the ceremony.

Sivarak's mother Simarak na Nakhon Phanom said she had talked with Thaksin on Sunday.

She said Thaksin asked her son to tell him what actually happened before he was arrested. Mr Sivarak insisted Kamrob Palawatwichai, the first secretary at the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh, had asked him for Thaksin's flight information.

"I don't think Sivarak will return to work in Cambodia again. Today, he'll return to Thailand and will discuss the details of the case," Mrs Simarak said.

Mr Sivarak is scheduled to arrive in Bangkok on Monday evening.

Siwarak's arrest deepened a diplomatic crisis over Cambodia's appointment of Thaksin as an economic adviser, and its refusal to extradite the ousted former 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''.

Thaksin is living abroad, mostly in Dubai, to avoid the jail term handed down by the Thai Supreme Court in absentia in September 2008 for conflict of interest while in office over the purchase of state land by his wife..

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.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!

My Community Networking said...

Anonymous 4:52 PM

Thank you for your kind compliment. I don't write any articles in here at all (Just copy and paste). I just scan for interesting article and preserve it here so I can always come back to read.