Thai spy sentenced to 10 years jail

Simarak Na Nakhon Panom (C), the mother of arrested Thai national Siwarak Chothipong, cries outside the Phnom Penh municipal court where her son is being tried December 8, 2009. The Thai national who manages flights in the country, was charged with stealing Thaksin's flight schedule before his November 10 arrival and sending it to diplomats at the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh.

REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAMBODIA CRIME LAW POLITICS)

Siwarak Chothipong of Thailand (R), 31, an employee at the Cambodia Air Traffic Service, is escorted by Cambodian police after his trail at the Phnom Penh municipal court December 8, 2009. The Thai national who manages flights in the country, was charged with stealing Thaksin's flight schedule before his November 10 arrival and sending it to diplomats at the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh.

REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAMBODIA CRIME LAW POLITICS)

By Khmerization

A Cambodian court has on Tuesday 8th December found a Thai man guilty of espionage and was sentenced to seven in jail plus three years on other charges, reports Kyodo News.

However, according to Australia's ABC News, Siwarak has pleaded not guilty to the espionage charges.

31 year-old Siwarak Chotipong was arrested in mid October for stealing the flight schedule of fugitive ex-Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra and passed it on to Thai diplomat based in the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh.

According to Deum Ampil, Siwarak has two options. First, he can request for a royal pardon in which he will be released a free man if his request is granted. And second, if his royal pardon request is denied, he must served 2/3 of his sentence before eligible for release.
---------------------------------------------------

Sivarak gets 7-year jail term

Tue, December 8, 2009
The Nation

Thai engineer Sivarak Chutipong was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment and fined Bt 100,000 over the charged of spying on fugitive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's flight information, Thai television reported Tuesday.

His mother Simarak Na Nakhon Phnanom who was in Phnom Penh busted into tear as the court ruled the verdict.

Sivarak was ruled guilty in accordance with article 19 of the 2005 Archives Law which cover information on national security and social order.

The Cambodian Court issued the ruling at 4:30 pm.

Thai Foreign Ministry's deputy spokesman Thanee Thongpakdee said that the ruling will deliver the ruling on Sivarak Chutipong at 4.30pm Tuesday.

Thanee said Consular Department's Deputy Director General Maturotpochana Ittirong who attended the trial in Phnom Penh called him and informed of the information.

The Cambodian court started the trial at about 8.15am on Tuesday. Sivarak was charged of spying the flight plans of Thaksin in November.

A presiding judge started the trial with Sivarak's defending and testimonies of witnesses from both sides. Earlier reports speculated that the court is possibly giving the verdict today.

Sivarak , 31, an employee of the Cambodia Air Traffic Service which controlled air traffic in Cambodia, rejected an allegation that he sent the flight plans of Thaksin to Thai Embassy's First Secretary Kamrob Palawatwichai.

"I knew the first secretary only for about two years and rarely contacted him," he told the court.

On the day that Thaksin arrived in Phnom Penh, that diplomat telephoned him and asked whether it was true that Thaksin arrived in the Cambodian capital.

"I am authorised to know that kind of information, so I checked it with a Khmer staff who confirmed Thaksin had arrived. That staff even gave me a copy of the flight plan," he said.

Sivarak said he did not pass on the copy to Kamrob.

Two other employees from the Cambodia Air Traffic Service testified that Siwarak asked them about the flight schedule.

Sivrak, was taken into court under heavy security.

Presiding judge Ke Sakhan of Phnom Penh Municipal Court said Sivarak was being tried on charges linked to "national security and public safety" related to offences committed in the capital.

The defendant's mother, Simarak na Nakhon Panom, and Thai diplomats were seen attending the trial.

The arrest took place on the second day of Thaksin's visit to Phnom Penh as an economic advisor to Cambodian premier Hun Sen and his government. The visit deepened a diplomatic crisis between both countries, following recalling of their ambassadors and first secretaries.

Cambodia expelled the first secretary of Thailand's embassy in Phnom Penh after alleging that Siwarak had passed information to the diplomat. Thailand retaliated hours later.

The feud was worsened after Phnom Penh refused to extradite Thaksin who has runaway from two-year jail term for corruption and abuse of power in Thailand.

Hun Sen announced the refusal even before forwarding Thailand's extradition request to its court for consideration.