(AFP)11/12/2009
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni Friday pardoned a Thai man jailed for seven years for spying on fugitive former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra, a Cambodian government spokesman said.
Siwarak Chothipong, 31, an employee at the Cambodia Air Traffic Service, will be released from prison Monday to his family and a delegation from Thailand's opposition Puea Thai party, spokesman Khieu Kanharith said.
"The king just signed it this morning," Khieu Kanharith told AFP, adding that the royal pardon was issued after Prime Minister Hun Sen requested it Thursday.
"This morning Hun Sen said that if the man wants to continue working in Cambodia, he is welcome," Khieu Kanharith added.
Siwarak's arrest in Phnom Penh last month deepened a diplomatic crisis over Cambodia's appointment of Thaksin as an economic adviser and its refusal to extradite the ousted premier to Thailand.
During his trial Tuesday, Siwarak denied stealing any documents and stated that although he had informed the Thai embassy's first secretary by telephone of a flight arrival, he had not been aware that Thaksin was on board.
Thaksin was toppled in a coup in 2006 and is living abroad to avoid a two-year jail term for corruption, but has continued to stir up protests in his homeland.
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