Published: 10/12/2009
(Posted by CAAI News Media)
Cambodian Senior Minister Sok An is pledging to help the Puea Thai Party try to obtain a royal pardon for the Thai engineer sentenced on Tuesday to seven years in jail for spying.
"Senior Minister Sok An has promised to coordinate the letters [from Puea Thai] to [Cambodian Prime Minister] Samdech Hun Sen," Noppadon Pattama, a legal adviser to ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra and former foreign minister, told a party meeting by phone yesterday.
The opposition party was approached by Simarak na Nakhon Phanom, the engineer's mother, to ask party chairman Chavalit Yongchaiyudh and former premier Thaksin to help her son Sivarak Chutipong.
Mr Noppadon said the party had agreed to help Mrs Simarak with the pardon request.
Sivarak's family will seek a pardon through Hun Sen by working with the engineer's lawyer, Khieu Sambou.
Puea Thai will send three letters to the Cambodian leader, one signed by Gen Chavalit, one by its party members and the other by Mrs Simarak.
The party has assigned its members led by spokesman Prompong Nopparit to take the letters to Phnom Penh. They could arrive in the Cambodian capital as early as tomorrow.
The 31-year-old engineer with Cambodia Air Traffic Services was sentenced on Tuesday to seven years in jail and fined 10 million riel (100,000 baht) for supplying Thaksin's flight plans to Kamrob Palawatwichai, the first secretary of the Thai embassy in Cambodia. Sivarak denied the charge in court. Mrs Sivarak yesterday called for understanding from the government for her desire to allow Puea Thai to help her free her son from jail in Cambodia.
Only Gen Chavalit, Thaksin and Puea Thai could help her son as the Thai government was at odds with Hun Sen, she said.
She asked the government and Foreign Ministry to delay their move to try to obtain a pardon for him.
"Please do not think about who will benefit or lose face on this issue," Mrs Simarak said.
"The only one on the losing end is Tao [Sivarak's nickname]. He has no freedom. His reputation and work record have already been damaged."
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya have left the pardon decision to Mrs Simarak and her family, but said the government was ready to help should the family need it.
The ministry said the process of seeking a royal pardon would start with the Chutipong family drafting a letter of request to Prey Sar prison. The prison would then forward it to the Justice Ministry, after which it would go to the government to seek the royal pardon.
Mrs Simarak, a teacher at Nakhon Ratchasima Technical College, demanded on Tuesday Mr Kamrob take responsibility for her son's arrest and jailing.
She said the diplomat was the root of the problem.
The ministry yesterday said Mr Kamrob did not violate any rules of diplomacy.
"Mr Kamrob was working within the diplomatic framework, so it is not necessary for him to clarify anything," ministry deputy spokesman Thani Thongpakdi said.
Asean secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan yesterday said he believed the Sivarak case would further damage ties between Thailand and Cambodia.
He said many Asean leaders had raised concerns about the spat as it could affect the regional effort to turn all 10 countries into a single community.
"If the conflict is not settled soon, it could affect the establishment of the Asean Community in 2015 and weaken the bargaining power of Asean in the world community," he said.
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