Cambodia released from jail Monday a Thai man convicted and then pardoned for spying on Thailand's fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra. The release of Siwarak Chothipong came as Thaksin paid a visit to Cambodia that could reignite diplomatic tensions between Bangkok and Phnom Penh.
Siwarak, 31, a Thai employee of the Cambodia Air Traffic Service, left Prey Sar prison early Monday in a three-car convoy after receiving a pardon from King Norodom Sihamoni on Friday, witnesses said. "I feel very happy," Siwarak told reporters. "Today I will go back to Thailand... I think I will come back (to Cambodia)".
He later departed on a flight to Bangkok with his family, his lawyer Khieu Sambo told AFP. Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said he was glad to hear the man had been freed. "It is welcomed that Siwarak has been released. I think he does not want to be trouble," he told reporters. Siwarak was initially sentenced to seven years in jail for supplying Thaksin's flight schedule to the Thai embassy when the former prime minister visited Cambodia last month.
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