Thai Leaders Claim to be Ready to Help

Thursday, 10 December 2009 03:15 DAP-NEWS

(Posted by CAAI News Media)

Thai leaders claimed their government is ready to help the recently convicted Sivarak Chutipong appeal or seek a pardon from Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni.

The Thai leaders´ claims come after a Phnom Penh court on Tuesday afternoon sentenced Sivarak to 7 years in prison, and a fine of CR 10 Million for stealing fugitive former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Sinawatra’s flight plans during his visit to Cambodia in November.

Sivarak was ruled guilty in accordance with Article 19 of the 2005 Archives Law which covers information on national security and social order.

The Thai 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 was quoted as saying by the Bangkok Post on Wednesday.

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 Thai government’s assistance.

“We have Thai diplomats in Phnom Penh who are ready to help Sivarak,” he claimed.

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.

The mother of Sivarak Chutipong is pinning her hopes on the Puea Thai Party and former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra getting her son a royal pardon from Cambodia after he was sentenced yesterday to seven years in jail on spying charges.

After the Phnom Penh Municipal Court ruling, Simarak na Nakhon Phanom called the opposition party from the Cambodian capital and appealed to party chairman Chavalit Yongchaiyudh and Thaksin to step in, the Bangkok Post added.

Simarak consulted her lawyer Khieu Sambou after the verdict and both agreed not to appeal the case in order to start proceedings for a pardon.

Pal Chandara, the Government’s lawyer, told reporters after the court’s ruling that “It is right the court prosecutors ruled him to be guilty, 7 years imprisonment, and CR10 Million.”

However, Khiev Sambo, the convicted man’s lawyer, did not go into details, saying only that, “It is the court’s right to decide but being as I am his lawyer, I will do my best to defend my client.”