Aides deny Thaksin royal-pardon request

They rejected a report that appeared the day before in The Japan Times newspaper.

Natthawut Saikua, a pro-Thaksin politician who is also a red-shirt leader, explained what Thaksin said in his interview with the Japanese daily was that he had submitted three reports about Thailand's political turmoil to His Majesty the King.

Thaksin's secretary, Pongthep Thepkanchana, yesterday said the deposed PM did give an interview to The Japan Times but never said he requested a royal pardon in writing.

In its report on Thursday, the Japanese newspaper quoted Thaksin as saying he wrote HM the King three letters because he believed in His Majesty's kindness and wisdom.

"If I get a pardon, I know my supporters would be happy, and we would not need to fight back any more and prove anything," he was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Affairs Ministry yesterday issued a statement that the Office of His Majesty's Private Secretary had never obtained any request from Thaksin seeking a royal pardon.

The ministry said its statement was issued after it had received many inquiries from foreign media about the report.

In a related development, the Office of the Attorney-General (OAG) yesterday announced the formation of a four-man team to negotiate with Hong Kong authorities about the extradition of fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who regularly visits Chinese territory.

Sirisak Tiyapan, director-general of the OAG's Foreign Litigation Department, said Attorney-General Chaikasem Nitisiri had appointed him to head a team consisting of three people from his agency and one police officer.

The team will arrive in Hong Kong, which is a Chinese special administrative region, next Tuesday to work out an extradition agreement.

Sirisak said he believed the initial meeting would address the issue in principle as opposed to reciprocating but could not say how many meetings would be needed before the two sides could reach an agreement.

The team is expected to stay in Hong Kong at least two days, he said.