Thailand deports crew of NKorean weapons plane

BANGKOK -- Thailand on Friday deported members of a foreign plane crew accused of smuggling arms from North Korea, a day after prosecutors dropped all charges against them.

The five crew members, from Kazakhstan and Belarus, were escorted to Bangkok's Suvannabhumi airport by at least a dozen police, and left in the early evening on an Air Astana flight for Almaty, Kazakhstan.

The five were arrested Dec. 12 when the Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane they were flying from the North Korean capital Pyongyang landed in Bangkok. Thai authorities, acting on a tip from the United States, seized the plane and 35 tons of weapons on board.

North Korea is barred under U.N. sanctions from exporting weapons.

Flight documents indicated the plane's destination was Iran, but officials there denied they were importing weapons.

Thailand's Attorney General's Office said Thursday the decision to drop charges against the Il-76 crew was made after the governments of Belarus and Kazakhstan contacted the Thai Foreign Ministry and requested the crew's release so they can be investigated at home.

"To charge them in Thailand could affect the good relationship between the countries," said Thanaphit Mollaphruek, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office. "They were only here for refueling."

Government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said Thai authorities were still awaiting advice from the United Nations on how to dispose of the weapons.