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BANGKOK: Thailand's Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said Friday his government would not revoke ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra's diplomatic passport.
Foreign Minister Tej Bunnag earlier said his ministry was in the process of invalidating Thaksin's red diplomatic passport, given to former Thai leaders, after he skipped bail and fled to Britain last week to evade graft charges.
Anti-government protesters have called for stripping Thaksin of all his travel documents.
But Samak, whose party is closely allied with Thaksin, told reporters that he had no plans to take away the billionaire tycoon's passport.
"The government has no policy to revoke Thaksin's red passport," Samak said.
Thaksin's lawyer says he and his wife Pojaman would apply for political asylum in Britain, claiming that they cannot receive a fair trial in Thailand and that they feared for their safety.
Pojaman has already been convicted of tax evasion but has appealed.
The Supreme Court announced Friday that it would hand down its verdict on September 17 in a separate corruption case accusing Thaksin of using his political office to win Pojaman a sweetheart deal on prime Bangkok property.
Prosecutors and anti-corruption officials have already announced that they will ask the Supreme Court to confiscate US$2.2 billion worth of the family's assets, saying only that Thaksin was "unusually rich”.
The money has already been frozen by investigators appointed by the generals who ousted Thaksin in 2006.
- AFP/yb
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