Police want Justo tried before he is extradited

A POLICE spokesman said yesterday that Swiss suspect Xavier Justo must be tried first in a Thai court on charges of blackmail and serve a jail term – if any – before he could be extradited.
Pol Lt-General Prawut Thavornsiri said police were seeking evidence against Justo that would be submitted to the public prosecutors, possibly within this month.
Justo was arrested last month on Koh Samui in Surat Thani province over allegations of attempted extortion of 2.5 million francs (Bt90 million) involving PetroSaudi, a Saudi Arabia-based oil and gas company.
 “The suspect will be tried in a Thai court on charges of blackmail. If the court rules against him, and a foreign country wants him extradited, he has to serve at least two-thirds of the prison term before being [handed over],” the spokesman said.
The penalty for blackmail is up to five years and/or a fine of more than Bt10,000. Justo’s alleged selling of secret information was conducted outside Thailand, so Thai authorities can neither charge him on the issue nor summon any foreigners for further questioning.
Malaysian media have reported that Justo had allegedly planned to sell the information to a group of people who would use it to discredit Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak.
The spokesman said Thai police could provide information to foreign countries through diplomatic channels, meaning the Foreign Ministry.
 Previously, representatives of the Malaysian Embassy in Bangkok had met and discussed the case with him but had not announced when they wanted to meet Justo for more questioning, Prawut said.
He understood the request to talk to Justo was under consideration by the Foreign Ministry.
“We are willing to cooperate with any countries that put their request through the proper channels. So far there have been no other countries that expressed a wish to get information on the matter,” the spokesman said.
Prawut had earlier said that Justo confessed to using Thailand and Singapore as meeting venues with potential buyers of information intended to discredit Najib.
Justo allegedly met three times in Bangkok with a Malaysia-born female news blogger who had moved to Britain to negotiate the purchase of information and data.
The suspect named about 10 |people from the media and political circles, even from the same party as Najib, who wanted to buy the information he had allegedly taken from PetroSaudi.