PM: Authorities are trying to extradite Thaksin to Thailand

BANGKOK, March 2 (TNA) - Thaialnd's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said on Monday convicted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s whereabouts was still unknown, but concerned officials were attempting to have him extradited to “face the music.”

Police and officials of the Office of the Attorney General and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were cooperating in trying to extradite Mr. Thaksin, ousted in a bloodless coup in September 2006, to Thailand, but he appeared not to be in Hong Kong and his present whereabouts was unknown, Mr. Abhisit said.

Mr. Thaksin cancelled a planned speech for Monday in China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. He was scheduled to speak at the Foreign Correspondents Club, but decided to cancel the event, he explained, to avoid jeopardising relations with China.

Organisers of the event said Sunday Mr. Thaksin would speak by videolink in the next few days.

Thailand does not have an extradition treaty with Hong Kong.

Admitting that it was difficult to make an arrest if the ousted premier telephones into the programme, Mr. Abhisit said his government was determined to enforce the law and Mr. Thaksin's case was “not politcally motivated.”

Mr. Thaksin was sentenced in absentia to two years in prison in October 2008. The Thai Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Political Office Holders found him guilty of breaching the National Counter Corruption Act by aiding his then-wife Pojaman Shinawatra to win a purchase bid for a tract of state-owned land on Ratchadaphisek Road in Bangkok in 2003.

The ex-premier also faces other corruption charges and the cases are proceeding in the courts. (TNA)