Cambodian police said yesterday they had charged a Thai man with spying on fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, further inflaming a diplomatic crisis between the neighboring countries.
The spy row blew up as Thaksin played a relaxed round of golf with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, underscoring Bangkok’s powerlessness to make Phnom Penh extradite the billionaire and get him to serve a jail term for graft.
Siwarak Chothipong, 31, who works for the Cambodia Air Traffic Service, was arrested and charged on Thursday with supplying Thailand with details of Thaksin’s flight schedule, Cambodian national police spokesman Kirt Chantharith said.
“We sent him to the court yesterday and he was charged with releasing information related to the national security of Cambodia,” Kirt Chantharith said.
“He tried to search for information related to the special flight of Thaksin in order to send it out of the country,” Kirt Chantharith added, later specifying that the information was sent to Thailand.
Police were investigating whether more people were involved, he added.
Thailand rejected the “malicious” allegations against its citizen.
“It’s not true. It is a malicious and false claim,” Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya told reporters before boarding a flight with Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to a regional summit in Singapore.
“Thaksin feels he must destroy Thailand and collaborate with Hun Sen,” he said.
Cambodia expelled a top Thai diplomat and Thailand reciprocated on Thursday in a sign of the growing tensions caused by the Cambodian government’s appointment of Thaksin earlier this month as an economic adviser.
Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 coup, arrived in Cambodia on Tuesday to take up the role and Hun Sen on Wednesday rejected Bangkok’s formal extradition request for Thaksin. The countries had already recalled their ambassadors last week.
Yesterday Thaksin met a group of supporters before playing golf with Hun Sen in the tourist hub of Siem Reap. Hun Sen and Cambodian officials laughed and applauded Thaksin’s shot as he teed off first at the luxury Angkor Golf Resort.
He was later due to meet around 50 MPs from Thailand’s main pro-Thaksin party, Puea Thai, who had crossed the border yesterday, Puea Thai lawmaker Pongpan Sunthornrachai said.
Telecommunications mogul Thaksin hit out at the Thai government during a lecture in Phnom Penh on Thursday, accusing Thai rulers of “false patriotism.”
Thaksin has pledged to help impoverished Cambodia understand finance, reduce poverty and lure more foreign investment. Cambodian officials have indicated he would leave the country yesterday or today and was not intending to live there.
Abhisit on Thursday ordered a review of two road construction projects with Cambodia that involved loans of more than 1.4 billion baht (US$42 million) to Phnom Penh, the finance ministry said.
Thailand has already put all talks and cooperation programs with Cambodia on hold and also tore up an oil and gas exploration deal signed during Thaksin’s time in power.
Tensions were already high between the two countries following a series of clashes over disputed territory near an ancient temple.
Twice-elected Thaksin fled Thailand in August last year, a month before a court sentenced him to two years in jail in a conflict of interest case. He had returned to Thailand just months earlier for the first time since the coup.
But he has retained enormous influence in Thai politics by stirring up protests against the current government, and analysts said that in Hun Sen he had found a new way to push for a return to power.
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
North Korean troops have started removing propaganda loudspeakers used to blare unsettling noises along the border, South Korea’s military said on Saturday, days after Seoul’s new administration dismantled ones on its side of the frontier. The two countries had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who is seeking to ease tensions with Pyongyang. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense on Monday last week said it had begun removing loudspeakers from its side of the border as “a practical measure aimed at helping ease
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
RSS