Siwarak brought to court on Tuesday, 8th December.BANGKOK (Reuters) - Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni granted a pardon on Friday to a Thai engineer sentenced to seven years in jail for leaking the flight schedule of fugitive former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra, a government minister said.
King Sihamoni agreed to pardon Siwarak Chutipongse, 31, after a request was made by his mother, Thailand's opposition Puea Thai party and Thaksin himself, Cambodian Information Minister Khieu Kanharith told Reuters.
"The king signed an order this morning to pardon him. He will be released on Monday at a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Hun Sen," Khieu Kanharith said by telephone.
"The request for a pardon was not made by the Thai government, but by Puea Thai party members and Mr Thaksin Shinawatra," he said.
A court jailed air traffic control engineer Siwarak for seven years on Tuesday for breaching national security by leaking Thaksin's flight schedule to a Thai diplomat in Cambodia, who was subsequently expelled.
Siwarak's arrest on November 10 prompted Cambodia to take temporary control of Thai-operated Cambodia Air Traffic Services (CATS) and suspend all Thai expatriates at the company.
The pardon is the latest twist in a heated spat between the two countries, which has added fuel to a deepening political crisis in Thailand, where supporters of the self-exiled Thaksin are trying to unseat the government.
Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and skipped bail last year ahead of a prison sentence for graft, caused a diplomatic uproar when he visited Cambodia last month to begin work as an economic adviser to its government.
Puea Thai, the latest incarnation of Thaksin's defunct Thai Rak Thai party, had been lobbying Cambodia to pardon Siwarak, whose mother appealed to the fugitive billionaire to help free her son.
Critics have dismissed Thaksin's visit and his party's involvement in the pardon plea as a publicity stunt to upset his opponents and discredit the Thai government.
Hun Sen has openly given his backing to Puea Thai and has refused to extradite Thaksin, his "eternal friend," who he says is the victim of a vendetta by his influential opponents.
The extradition issue and Cambodia's offer of a home and a job to Thaksin led to the recall and expulsion of diplomats and the freezing of bilateral agreements, including a pact to jointly develop untapped energy reserves in the Gulf of Thailand.
The downgrade of ties has prompted concerns about a possible border closure but analysts say this is unlikely because Thailand's economy would suffer more as a result.
(Reporting by Martin Petty; Editing by Alan Raybould and Paul Tait)
A court jailed air traffic control engineer Siwarak for seven years on Tuesday for breaching national security by leaking Thaksin's flight schedule to a Thai diplomat in Cambodia, who was subsequently expelled.
Siwarak's arrest on November 10 prompted Cambodia to take temporary control of Thai-operated Cambodia Air Traffic Services (CATS) and suspend all Thai expatriates at the company.
The pardon is the latest twist in a heated spat between the two countries, which has added fuel to a deepening political crisis in Thailand, where supporters of the self-exiled Thaksin are trying to unseat the government.
Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and skipped bail last year ahead of a prison sentence for graft, caused a diplomatic uproar when he visited Cambodia last month to begin work as an economic adviser to its government.
Puea Thai, the latest incarnation of Thaksin's defunct Thai Rak Thai party, had been lobbying Cambodia to pardon Siwarak, whose mother appealed to the fugitive billionaire to help free her son.
Critics have dismissed Thaksin's visit and his party's involvement in the pardon plea as a publicity stunt to upset his opponents and discredit the Thai government.
Hun Sen has openly given his backing to Puea Thai and has refused to extradite Thaksin, his "eternal friend," who he says is the victim of a vendetta by his influential opponents.
The extradition issue and Cambodia's offer of a home and a job to Thaksin led to the recall and expulsion of diplomats and the freezing of bilateral agreements, including a pact to jointly develop untapped energy reserves in the Gulf of Thailand.
The downgrade of ties has prompted concerns about a possible border closure but analysts say this is unlikely because Thailand's economy would suffer more as a result.
(Reporting by Martin Petty; Editing by Alan Raybould and Paul Tait)
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