Ruling Pheu Thai Party to file lawsuit against opposition

BANGKOK, December 17 (TNA) - Thailand's ruling Pheu Thai Party said on Saturday that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reconfirmed it has followed its ministerial regulations and Thai laws in reissuing a passport to exiled ex-prime Thaksin Shinawatra. Pheu Thai Party Spokesman Prompong Nopparit told a press conference of the Foreign Mnistry's reconfirmation, after the main opposition Democrat Party announced that it plans to strip Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and Foreign Affairs Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul from their posts on their allegedly violating the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' regulations and the legal conducts. Surapong, himself, earlier said he wanted to challenge the Democrat Party to strip him from his post, insisting that he had done everything in accordance with the laws and he was willing to fight the case in either the court or the Parliament. Thaksin was stripped of his Thai passport by the previous Democrat Party-led government, but received citizenship from Montenegro which allows him to travel internationally. Democrat Party Spokesman Chavanond Intarakomalyasut, meanwhile, showed the press an order issued by the Thai Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders which was sent to the Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs on August 15, 2008 forbidding Thaksin from leaving the country, as well as an arrest warrant against the convicted Thai premier to the then national police chief. The Democrat Party asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to clarify procedures on reissuing the passport for Thaksin and on erasing his name from the country's blacklist, as well as on Cambodian troops firing at a Royal Thai Navy helicopter near the Thai-Cambodian border in Trat Province on Friday. (TNA)