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Published on February 14, 2008

During questioning, Earl Russel Bonds, 42, tried to kill himself by cutting his wrist with scissors, but police seized the scissors in time. A police officer was accidentally cut in the palm during a scuffle with Bonds to grab the scissors.

Bonds was handed to Federal Bureau of Investigation agents at Phuket International Airport.

They flew him to Bangkok in the evening to await an extradition order to the US.

Bonds was with his Thai boyfriend when police arrested him at a house in Phuket.

Immigration records showed he had misused his US passport and overstayed his visa, which was revoked after the arrest.

Police said Bonds entered Thailand on August 30 last year and worked as an English teacher, then later as a freelance columnist.

Bonds did not resist arrest and admitted he was the person in an FBI wanted list. He excused himself from being questioned by both Thai and FBI agents.

Phuket police said Bonds asked for tranquilliser pills during his brief detention at the local immigration office before FBI agents picked him up. He grabbed the scissors and cut his left wrist when a police officer on guard turned away to get him water for the pills.

A native of St Louis, Missouri, Bonds has been charged in the US with molesting an 11-year-old boy in 2003.

The Nation