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Stay by Thai ex-premier Thaksin in Germany triggers fury
Jun 5, 2009, 8:20 GMT
Berlin - A previously unnoticed sojourn by former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra in Germany at the start of this year upset Bangkok and triggered fury in Berlin, a German newspaper reported Friday.
Thailand has sentenced billionaire Thaksin in absentia to two years' prison for conflict of interest. He has moved around the world, always one step ahead of arrest warrants from his homeland.
The Munich newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung said Thaksin had last summer obtained a 90-day visa to visit Germany. Then, on December 29, 2008 in Bonn, he obtained a one-year residency permit, picking it up in person without federal officials noticing.
The newspaper said the permit was cancelled at Berlin's demand on May 28. It was not clear from the report where Thaksin was living now. The paper said he was using a Nicaraguan diplomatic passport. His Thai passport has been revoked.
Thaksin, who ruled from 2001 to 2006, was deposed in a military coup and continues to be revered by Thailand's populist red-shirt protest movement.
The Sueddeutsche said the discovery that a Bonn immigration office had issued Thaksin a permit triggered inter-agency suspicions in the German federal government. But neither the Foreign Ministry nor the BND foreign-intelligence service had known about the permit.
It said the billionaire, who stated he was living in Bonn's elegant suburb of Bad Godesberg, had been accompanied to the immigration office by a respected lawyer, a retired German police commander and a freelance troubleshooter, Werner Mauss.
It said the clerk was given to understand that Mauss, 69, represented the BND. German diplomats, furious that German relations with Thailand had been endangered, initially accused the BND of engineering the visa. But Mauss had apparently acted independently.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
where u spent those 15 years? Among the elite or upper middle class who enriched themselve all the time by priviledge aand got the best part of the pie?
Well also the military coup is a wrong way to correct anything .I did not support him and do care nothing about him but u need to know that there r many face of thing
If u want to know more try to search google news with the name 'Jonathan head' he is the BBC reporter in THai and also the Economist Magazine
Well u might not like my opinion .What about BBC and the Economist? Bias too?
Woww!! 15 years, where the cave have you been in Thailand hahaha, he is 'Not' fugitive.
Thaksin is not fugitive he is a national disgrace and greedy inconsiderate person who is corrupted on every level possible. I don't support the tactics of the yellow shirt ppl or the military coup, but i hope that he will be punished by all the bad things he has done and the bad karma that he has accumulated.
think againJun 5th, 2009 - 21:36:19
'Jonathan head' he is the BBC reporter in THai and also the Economist Magazine.
'think again' can you again think of anyone else beside Jonathan Head (who sided with Mr. thugsin since day one'. Out of 30 or so of foreign correspondents in Thailand. Think again very very hard. Jonathan Head is a freelance reporter.
It just goes to show money can buy anyone, whether you're German or Thai.
I heard many people disagree with the coup or the yellow shirts' acts, but at the same token these people did not come up with ideas to solve Thailand's corrupted situation.
Thaksin is battling with stage 3 prostate cancer. What goes around comes around.
This prove:-
Money can buy everyone even in Germany.
Suggest to investigate deeply on the whole process.
I hope, one day, someone will write a comprehensively detailed and analytical book about this crook Thaksin and may be even a movie script. A movie will be quite useful for a nation of few book-readers. Foreigners will be amazed on the scale of swindling he did and, more interestingly, was allowed to do. Some Thais would be ashamed of supporting him in elections and just shrugged their shoulders as they would normally do when issue of accountability comes up. A second group of Thais will say, 'I told you so. Why do we have to wait so long for this?' and will recall fondly days of protest to unseat him. A third group will recall complaining the PAD's protest blocking traffics, causing them precious minutes and airport delay, but will reap the benefit as 'free-riders'. A small remaining minority will remain loyal to Thaksin as every village must have its idiot.
Let Toxsin die in peace... outside of Thailand please.
I totally agreed with 'ordinary person'. Why we are bothering catching him? Just keep him away from Thailand and let him die alone.
page: 1
Guenter BellachJun 5th, 2009 - 12:59:20
I have lived in Thailand for 15 years and I know all about this crook. Makes me ashamed of having been born in Germany, when I find out that he was able to bribe German officials to allow this criminal from justice to stay in Germany. Why did it take the German government so long to find out?
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