Lawyer for Sivarak files bail request

Thai engineer promises to stay for his 'spy' trial

PHNOM PENH : The lawyer for the Thai engineer held on charges of spying on ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra says he has filed a bail request to a Cambodian court.

Sivarak Chutipong, 31, an employee of Cambodia Air Traffic Service (CATS), was arrested on charges of supplying details of Thaksin's flight schedule to the Thai embassy when Thaksin visited Phnom Penh earlier this month.

His arrest deepened a diplomatic crisis between the two countries over Cambodia's appointment of Thaksin as an economic adviser and its refusal to extradite him to Bangkok.

"I filed the bail request with the court this morning, and we assured the court that Sivarak will not return to Thailand before his trial," his Cambodian attorney Kao Soupha said.

The lawyer said Mr Sivarak had confessed to court officials he leaked information about Thaksin's flight to a Thai diplomat. "Sivarak said he reported the information because the Thai diplomat asked him for it," Kao Soupha said.

Mr Sivarak informed the Thai official after Thaksin's private jet landed, and had not known the ex-prime minister was on the plane, he added.

But the lawyer insisted his client said the information was not secret and not stolen.

Cambodia expelled Kamrob Palawatwicha, the first secretary of Thailand's embassy in Phnom Penh, after alleging that Mr Sivarak had passed information to the diplomat. Thailand reciprocated hours later.

Both countries earlier this month withdrew their respective ambassadors in the dispute that broke out over Thaksin's appointment.

All Thai air traffic control staff were last Wednesday suspended from the Thai-owned civil aviation company, which oversees Cambodian air space, after a Cambodian government official was appointed temporary caretaker of the firm.

Chavanond Intarakomalyasut, secretary for the Thai foreign minister, said president of the Lawyers Council of Thailand Dej-udom Krairit will leave for Phnom Penh today with his staff to talk with the Cambodian lawyer about the case. Deputy director-general of the Consul Department Mathurapojjana Ittharong will join the council team to seek ways to help Mr Sivarak.

Cambodia rejected a claim in the Thai media that a daughter of Prime Minister Hun Sen is to take a stake in CATS.

A Cambodian cabinet statement said the government's management of CATS is temporary.

However, the statement did not indicate how long the government's hold over CATS would last.

"The spokesman wishes to stress, once again, that the Royal Government of Cambodia appointed its officials to temporarily supervise and manage the company, only to protect the national security and safety of Cambodian leaders," it said.