Noppadon:Thaksin not after asylum
- Published: 10/07/2009 at 11:43 AM
- Online news: Breakingnews
Fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is not touring the Pacific islands seeking political asylum in exchange for a rumoured US$300 million investment package, Thaksin's legal adviser Noppadon Pattama said on Friday.
Mr Noppadon said Thaksin had phoned him in the morning and told him that he had met Fijian Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama earlier this week to discuss small investment projects, not a US$300 million investment project as speculated.
"Thaksin insisted that he has no plan to seek political asylum since he could have applied for political asylum in Britain but decided to withdraw later," the ex-foreign minister said.
"Thaksin has returned to Dubai and is not in Tonga. He was only meeting world leaders and gathering investment information during his recent trip."
He said it would not be possible for the ousted premier to use false names while travelling overseas since he was well recognised all over the world, and people asked for his autograph everywhere he went.
The Thai government had failed to extradite Thaksin because other countries did not want to cooperate with a government that gave false information, he said.
The government might now be planning government-to-government negotiations to bring back the former prime minister to Thailand since it had not received cooperation from Interpol and other countries, Mr Noppadon said.
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- Writer: BangkokPost.com
