Nicaragua, UAE begged to extradite Thaksin

Sirisak Tiyapan, director-general of the Office of the Attorney-General's Foreign Affairs Department, said yesterday that the request had been made through the Foreign Ministry.

He said Thailand has no extradition treaties with the two countries, adding that the prosecutors were unaware of Thaksin's exact whereabouts. There were recent reports that Thaksin, who was convicted in exile to two years in jail in a corruption case, was in Nicaragua and the UAE.

Meanwhile, the Criminal Court yesterday extended the probation, as requested by police, of the three red-shirt leaders accused of inciting unrest during Songkran Day riots. Veera Musigapong, Natthawut Saikua and Dr Weng Tochirakarn of the Democratic Alliance against Dictatorship will be under police watch for another 12 days.

Police said they needed to question ten more witnesses and wanted the three leaders to be available till May 17.

According to law, suspects should be indicted within 48 days or they will be set free.

The three DAAD leaders did not show up in court yesterday because they were given temporary bail on April 24. However, they are required to report to the court on June 11 because police can only detain until June 10.

In a related development, police are set to seek arrest warrants for 11 more people involved in the violent incident at the Interior Ministry on April 12, said General Thanee Somboonsap, who heads the investigative team.

This would be in addition to the 21 people already facing arrest over the incident, he said.

On that day, shortly after Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva put Bangkok and surrounding provinces under emergency, many red-shirt protesters stormed into the ministry's compound, attacked official vehicles and injured some people, including the PM's secretary-general Nipon Promphan.