Surapong faces impeachment

Dr Tul Sitthisomwong, coordinator of the Alliance of Patriots, said it would be illegal to issue a passport for anyone who has been issued with an arrest warrants and run away from legal penalties.

“When a court convicts a man and he runs away, it is duty of the government and police to bring him back to face the prison term. If he is discovered to be in a foreign country, it is duty of the foreign ministry and the attorneys to bring him back to the country,” Tul said.

Instead of bringing back Thaksin to serve his jail term, the foreign minister intends to issue him with a passport.

“Khun Surapong should ask his Treaties and Legal Affairs Department whether the reissuance could be implemented according to the laws or not,” he said.

Tul is the leader of multicoloured movement, which opposes violence and the proThaksin movement, the red shirts.

Surapong told reporters Friday that the foreign ministry will soon reissue a passport for Thaksin, brother of present Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra as a New Year’s gift.

Surapong, a Pheu Thai MP, said he will use his authority and proceed legally under the regulations of the ministry to issue a new passport to Thaksin.

“It would be excellent if it could be a New Year gift for Thaksin,” he said.

Thaksin was stripped of his ordinary passport during the Abhisit Vejjajiva government after fleeing a conviction of two years in prison for corruption and abuse of power. He has used his Montenegrin passport to travel internationally. When his sister’s government took office, many foreign countries that banned his entry cancelled the ban, including Germany and Japan.