Prayuth Promises Not to Arrest Thaksin at Lee Kuan Yew's Funeral

[WhizBang]

Perhaps Prayuth should attend the funeral accompanied by some police, who will arrest Thaksin if he shows his cheshire face.

Yeah. The Singaporean authorities would have no problem whatsoever with their sovereignty being ridden roughshod over. Great idea.

The Thai police coordinate with the Singapore police to arrest Thaksin, then hand Thaksin over to the Thai police for deportation. Not so difficult really and no one riding roughshod over anyone. Yes, great idea. Remember that Thaksin is a convicted fugitive on the run.

[WhizBang]

I'm sure that Thaksin will make his best efforts to get pictures of the two of them together.

Yes, even if he has to photoshop them.

[Thai at Heart]

Why doesnt he make a request of the Singaporean courts to arrest and deport him to Thailand?

[kannot]

Why not just have an arm wrestle to decide the winner, I mean theyre both so bloody childish anyway.

[ScarpoFongness4U]

Taskin will likely propose a unity government and be welcomed back as a Prayut advisor

Who would that harm?

The people will cheer

[NongKhaiKid]

Its to be expected that the ' just do this, just do that ' brigade have weighed in without any regard to international law or diplomacy.

No one, not even Prayuth, can set foot in another country and do as they want although it may be news to him.

After Mr. T was allowed to attend the Olympics and forgot to come back little it was done to have him returned. It took the Abhisit govt a year to cancel his passport although he did collect several others in time and to the best of my knowledge an Interpol Red Notice was never sought. Interpol member countries are not obliged to act on any Interpol notices but it could have made things difficult for him.

There may have been good reasons for not wanting him back eg making him a resident figurehead which is why the Philippines insisted Marcos could not remain. Both successfully fermented opposition and unrest from outside their countries but possibly not as much as they could when actually on the ground.

If the junta is bent on wiping out the influence of the Shins what have they done to have him extradited ? Nothing that I know of.

The world may know all about Mr. T but since his own country haven't bothered to chase him there's really no reason why he can't go where he wants including Singapore although I'm sure they don't want any sort of incident at such a solemn occasion.

On extradition in general how many times have we heard that LoS will seek the extradition of ... and that seems to be the end of it ?

Edited March 24, 2015 by NongKhaiKid

[NongKhaiKid]

Perhaps Prayuth should attend the funeral accompanied by some police, who will arrest Thaksin if he shows his cheshire face.

Yeah. The Singaporean authorities would have no problem whatsoever with their sovereignty being ridden roughshod over. Great idea.

The Thai police coordinate with the Singapore police to arrest Thaksin, then hand Thaksin over to the Thai police for deportation. Not so difficult really and no one riding roughshod over anyone. Yes, great idea. Remember that Thaksin is a convicted fugitive on the run.

It's not as simple as that.

[jamesjohnsonthird]

"Thaksin, the de facto leader of the Redshirt movement, was ousted in a coup in 2006 and is living in self-imposed exile to avoid a corruption conviction over a land purchase."

No he wasn't.

No he isn't, he's a convicted criminal evading justice.

Sorry. Thaksin, the democratically elected PM was ousted by a SE Asian Military coup, that tore up the constitution, gave themselves amnesty, rewrote the constitution, appointed the Senate that stacked the court with Thaksin enemies, then confiscated his wealth.

Funny thing is he was convicted on a technicality 'purchasing' land. The Military General that replaced him was caught red handed with a private home in the national forest.. What happened to him? Nothing.

[dragonfly94]

Thaksin was convicted by a court that had little option but to find him guilty. All they could get him on was a conflict of interest, that is not corruption, but a minor charge the same as they got Samak on for appearing on a cooking program. Quite right Prayuth nor any other Thai could arrest Mr T in Singapore, that's a civilized country governed by the rule of law, and not the rule of thugs and force and illegal coups.

IMO, of course there is a large difference in the charges against Thaksin and the minor charge against Samak for appearing on a cooking program.

His wife bought a bit of land in Rachada, big deal, if that sort of thing was all the rest of the crooks who run this country were guilty of it would be a far less corrupt place.

[dragonfly94]

Thaksin was convicted by a court that had little option but to find him guilty. All they could get him on was a conflict of interest, that is not corruption, but a minor charge the same as they got Samak on for appearing on a cooking program. Quite right Prayuth nor any other Thai could arrest Mr T in Singapore, that's a civilized country governed by the rule of law, and not the rule of thugs and force and illegal coups.

All they could get him on was conflict of interest, because that's all that particular case was about. There are another 15 more serious cases awaiting his return.

Samak wasn't charged with "appearing on a cooking program". He was charged because he got paid for it and he lied about it in court.

Pure vindictiveness where Samak was concerned and obviously shows how desperate they were to out him, they all lie about their income, so what. As for mr T if they really had cases against him why have they not prosecuted him in his absence? I'm sure his enemies could arrange that as well, they could probably give him life for selling his own company to foreigners. If there was no Thaksin they would need to invent one, Thailand's elite needs a bogy man and the threat of instability to justify it's illegal actions, no corruption is bigger than an illegal coup.

[chooka]

Why doesnt he make a request of the Singaporean courts to arrest and deport him to Thailand?

He could collect the red bull kid whilst he is there also, he must be over his runny nose by now.

[Bluespunk]

"Thaksin, the de facto leader of the Redshirt movement, was ousted in a coup in 2006 and is living in self-imposed exile to avoid a corruption conviction over a land purchase."

No he wasn't.

No he isn't, he's a convicted criminal evading justice.

Sorry. Thaksin, the democratically elected PM was ousted by a SE Asian Military coup, that tore up the constitution, gave themselves amnesty, rewrote the constitution, appointed the Senate that stacked the court with Thaksin enemies, then confiscated his wealth.

Funny thing is he was convicted on a technicality 'purchasing' land. The Military General that replaced him was caught red handed with a private home in the national forest.. What happened to him? Nothing.

No. He wasn't. He wasn't PM. There was no govt at the time of the coup. There was an impasse due to corrupt practices during the last election by TRT.

He was convicted of a crime. A crime he was guilty of. There are plenty more waiting for him to be convicted on. Not least the butchery of his war on drugs.

[Ricardo]

I'm sure that Thaksin will make his best efforts to get pictures of the two of them together.

Perhaps he might photo-shop arrange for Nelson Mandela to pose with the both of them ?

[Soutpeel]

how very childish,and rather disrespectful turning a foreign countries leader's funeral "political"

I would humbly suggest the Singapore government don't invite either of them to pay their respects, as neither have respect for others

[Ricardo]

"Thaksin, the de facto leader of the Redshirt movement, was ousted in a coup in 2006 and is living in self-imposed exile to avoid a corruption conviction over a land purchase."

No he wasn't.

No he isn't, he's a convicted criminal evading justice.

Sorry. Thaksin, the democratically elected PM was ousted by a SE Asian Military coup, that tore up the constitution, gave themselves amnesty, rewrote the constitution, appointed the Senate that stacked the court with Thaksin enemies, then confiscated his wealth.

Funny thing is he was convicted on a technicality 'purchasing' land. The Military General that replaced him was caught red handed with a private home in the national forest.. What happened to him? Nothing.

"What happened to him? Nothing."

On the contrary, former-PM Sorayud had to demolish his house, and give the land back. Quite right too !

I agree that Thaksin's charge & conviction were on a technicality, charged under a long-standing law for letting his wife have business-dealings with his government while he was PM, unfortunately he hasn't been able to find time to attend the court since then, to hear any of the several other cases against him begin.

Playing golf, attending mutton-grabs & doing deals for African gold/diamonds/lotteries/whatever are terribly time-consuming, I understand.

[rubl]

"Thaksin, the de facto leader of the Redshirt movement, was ousted in a coup in 2006 and is living in self-imposed exile to avoid a corruption conviction over a land purchase."

No he wasn't.

No he isn't, he's a convicted criminal evading justice.

Sorry. Thaksin, the democratically elected PM was ousted by a SE Asian Military coup, that tore up the constitution, gave themselves amnesty, rewrote the constitution, appointed the Senate that stacked the court with Thaksin enemies, then confiscated his wealth.

Funny thing is he was convicted on a technicality 'purchasing' land. The Military General that replaced him was caught red handed with a private home in the national forest.. What happened to him? Nothing.

Funny thing is that a man too rich to need to be corrupt couldn't help himself, he (and his legal wife) simply had to do business while being Prime Minister.

[rubl]

Interesting. The passing away of a great if controversial personality is used here to do the usual history rewriting.

No doubt Harry Turtledove has many avid readers of his books amongst TVF posters.

[NanLaew]

Thaksin was convicted by a court that had little option but to find him guilty. All they could get him on was a conflict of interest, that is not corruption, but a minor charge the same as they got Samak on for appearing on a cooking program. Quite right Prayuth nor any other Thai could arrest Mr T in Singapore, that's a civilized country governed by the rule of law, and not the rule of thugs and force and illegal coups.

Thaksins party was in power when he got convicted, so I think they had other options.

....

What? Like offer a larger bribe than the opposition to the judges in the conflict of interest case?

Back On Topic: the media have made up a story out of a bit of mis-reporting that makes it look like Prayuth had an intent to somehow apprehend Thaksin in Singapore and had been outed. Anyone with a couple of brain cells knows that beyond CIA-style rendition, there's no legal way this can be considered let alone be carried out. This grand notion that the grand bogeyman can somehow be spirited home and have his day in court is a frequent but boring 'breaking news' item and will repeatedly pop up so as long as the current impasse prevails.

PS. I have heard that the Thai Special Forces have been doing some extra training down past Songkhla way.

[Bluespunk]

"Thaksin, the de facto leader of the Redshirt movement, was ousted in a coup in 2006 and is living in self-imposed exile to avoid a corruption conviction over a land purchase."

No he wasn't.

No he isn't, he's a convicted criminal evading justice.

Sorry. Thaksin, the democratically elected PM was ousted by a SE Asian Military coup, that tore up the constitution, gave themselves amnesty, rewrote the constitution, appointed the Senate that stacked the court with Thaksin enemies, then confiscated his wealth.

Funny thing is he was convicted on a technicality 'purchasing' land. The Military General that replaced him was caught red handed with a private home in the national forest.. What happened to him? Nothing.

"What happened to him? Nothing."

On the contrary, former-PM Sorayud had to demolish his house, and give the land back. Quite right too !

I agree that Thaksin's charge & conviction were on a technicality, charged under a long-standing law for letting his wife have business-dealings with his government while he was PM, unfortunately he hasn't been able to find time to attend the court since then, to hear any of the several other cases against him begin.

Playing golf, attending mutton-grabs & doing deals for African gold/diamonds/lotteries/whatever are terribly time-consuming, I understand.

That's the guy. Army General Sorayud.

Ironic this guy took over as PM when they evicted Thaksin.

Thaksins wife bought the land at fair market value at public auction.

Army General Sorayud stole his land in a National Park. (but gave it back when caught.)

Funny.

Where is Sorayud now? In jail, right?

Fair market value? Hilarious.

[Lupatria]

taken literally, he still can arrest him after the service

If he can get Thaksin to enter the Thai embassy, then he could arrest him! But that would be wishful thinking.

Thailand missed that chance when Thaksin was at the Thai Embassy in Hong Kong during the process of his divorce.

[Gandtee]

Could he be arrested in Singapore? Does Thai law enforcement have any authority in another country? Or was the inference on kidnapping?

[Homeropec]

"Thaksin, the de facto leader of the Redshirt movement, was ousted in a coup in 2006 and is living in self-imposed exile to avoid a corruption conviction over a land purchase."

No he wasn't.

No he isn't, he's a convicted criminal evading justice.

Well this is a clear example of sectarian view:

is he evading justice? Justice according to whom?

1. according to the good guys that "allegations of corruptions" is a REASON to violate the constitution and steal the power from an elected government

2. According to good guys that has appointed another good guys for the parliament, and these in turns has appointed their brothers, sisters, wifes, daughters, sons, and friends as advisers and paliament's employes... of course this is not corruption!!!!

3. According to those good guys claiming that people are happier owing to the Martial law...

3. According to those good guys that has politicized the ministry of Justice... (example: red shirts easily found gilty and immediately sent to jail... but immediate and politicals responsibles from the 2010 are still free and claiming a moral life.

4. ...

[Bluespunk]

"Thaksin, the de facto leader of the Redshirt movement, was ousted in a coup in 2006 and is living in self-imposed exile to avoid a corruption conviction over a land purchase."

No he wasn't.

No he isn't, he's a convicted criminal evading justice.

Well this is a clear example of sectarian view:

is he evading justice? Justice according to whom?

1. according to the good guys that "allegations of corruptions" is a REASON to violate the constitution and steal the power from an elected government

2. According to good guys that has appointed another good guys for the parliament, and these in turns has appointed their brothers, sisters, wifes, daughters, sons, and friends as advisers and paliament's employes... of course this is not corruption!!!!

3. According to those good guys claiming that people are happier owing to the Martial law...

3. According to those good guys that has politicized the ministry of Justice... (example: red shirts easily found gilty and immediately sent to jail... but immediate and politicals responsibles from the 2010 are still free and claiming a moral life.

4. ...

It's not sectarian. It's a fact.

[Pimay1]

"Thaksin, the de facto leader of the Redshirt movement, was ousted in a coup in 2006 and is living in self-imposed exile to avoid a corruption conviction over a land purchase."

No he wasn't.

No he isn't, he's a convicted criminal evading justice.

No one has ever accused Khaosod of reporting the truth when it cimes to Thaksin or the reds.

[halloween]

I suppose it would be inappropriate for Prayuth to wear a side-arm during the funeral, but it would certainly ensure the "people's hero" stayed well away from him.

[geriatrickid]

Maybe they could have a beer together and review the scorecard on who has screwed Thailand more. TS has a big head start but the General is doing his best to catch up.

While Prayut isn;t the best possible PM, he doesn't enrich himself (yet) and he doesn't try to get really absolute control.

How can you make a comment one way or the other without knowledge of the general's assets and financial details?

The man may indeed be pristine and as clean as the driven snow of Finland. However, in the absence of proper information, one cannot comment particularly if one takes into account the past characteristics of senior army officers.

In any case, I am not here to criticize him, but to express disappointment at the twisted headline. The general didn't make any reference to arresting Thaksin, but responded to a stupid question. His response was twisted out of context. That's gutter reporting and inappropriate.

[geriatrickid]

The original post to which this reply was made was deleted. This comment is deleted as it serves no purpose.

Edited March 25, 2015 by geriatrickid
quoted removed post

[Jai Dee]

One post referring to ex-PM Thaksin as Toxin has been removed from this thread.

[ExPratt]

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Misleading title. I am not keen at all on the General and his junta, but all he is guilty of here is giving a retort to a possibly loaded question. What is he supposed to say?

Agree , The press are annoying enough in the UK to say the least but here the are shockingly bad and misinformed and just appear to add 2 and 2 and get 7 Thousand , They'd be good working for TAT

[Fat Haggis]

I suppose it would be inappropriate for Prayuth to wear a side-arm during the funeral, but it would certainly ensure the "people's hero" stayed well away from him.

Why would a FORMER Army officer, now a diplomat be allowed to wear a sidearm? Especially in a foreign country ?

Prayuth isn't going alone, he NEVER travels alone, he, as a head if state will travel with his own close protection team, that can be anything from 2 bodyguards and upwards.

He along with his security team have to RESPECT the laws of the land in which he visits.