Govt unsure if Thaksin can speed Veera, Ratree's release
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Thailand will have to wait and see if a meeting between fugitive former PM Thaksin Shinawatra and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has any effect on an appeal for a royal pardon for activists Veera Somkwamkid and Ratree Pipattanapaiboon, Thani Thongpakdee
Thani said the appeal for a royal pardon was made last year, but he was uncertain if the two Thais had confessed to illegally crossing into Cambodia. Prisoners normally had to serve two thirds of their sentences before being entitled to a royal pardon in Cambodia.
Foreign Minister Surapong Towichukchaikul had instructed Thai Ambassador to Phnom Penh Sompong Sa-nguanban to seek help for the two detainees. The two were sentenced to eight years jail and would normally be required to serve six. But the two could request to have their sentences reduced, and this could lead to a quicker release from prison, Thani said.
Preecha Somkwamkid told The Nation, however, that his brother had yet to admit illegally crossing the Cambodian border.
“According to international principle, how can an individual citizen verify whether the area [he or she is in] belongs to a certain national territory? What right do Veera or Ratree have to say whether they were standing on the Thai or the Cambodian side of the border? This is a matter of bilateral agreement,” he said.
“We must ask the then Abhisit Vejjajiva administration where they thought the two were [when they were arrested]. My brother doesn’t know the borderline between Thailand and Cambodia.”
But Preecha said the pair would accept decisions by the Cambodian justice system because their families do not want the issue to be politicised any further, and they weren’t interested in merely seeking to win or lose the cases. Bilateral relations between the two countries should proceed without being affected by the cases.
He hoped Hun Sen would be generous, because he thought it served no purpose to detain the two much longer. If Cambodia released the two it would show compassion on their part for the two detainees and goodwill toward Thailand.
