Cambodia to consider bail request for Thai engineer on Friday

BANGKOK, A Cambodian court will hear Thailand's bail request bid on Friday for the Thai engineer in Phnom Penh on espionage charges and affirmed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) had done its utmost to help him, according to MFA Department of Information director-general Vimon Kidchob.

Siwarak Chutipong, an employee of Thai-owned Cambodia Air Traffic Services (CATS), was arrested by Cambodian police November 12 on charges of passing to Thai diplomatic officials what the Cambodian authorities considered as privileged information regarding the flight of fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra when he made his recent visit.

Ms Vimon said she believed that Simarak na Nakon Panom, Mr Siwarak's mother, understood the procedure and had made an appointment with the Thai officials to go to Cambodia again next Monday (December 7 to hear the court's verdict) on the next day but she may want to visit him sooner.

However, Ms Vimon said that the mother had not informed the ministry of her desire to visit her son earlier than planned.

Mrs Simarak on Monday met former foreign minister Noppadon Pattama at Thailand’s opposition Puea Thai Party headquarters, seeking his assistance to get bail for her son and permission from Cambodia to visit him again.

She claimed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had moved too slowly for her to help her son.

Mr Noppadon, a legal adviser to convicted ex-premier Thaksin, said he would help her on a humanitarian basis by using his old connections in Phnom Penh to help Mrs Simarak see her son again and he did not want his move to be seen as a political issue. (TNA)