The flight home that will trigger new war

He barely spoke any word on the second and last leg of the unwanted journey. But the images of Saxena slumped in wheelchair at airports as he embarked on the unpleasant journey home may have belied hidden belligerence.

Theprovince.com, a Canadian news website, reported as his plane took off from Vancouver that he had told one of its reporters he had "information that would be quite damaging to some powerful people" in Thailand.

Those are the words several current and former Thai politicians would not want to hear.

But with his highly effective lawyers landing on the Thai soil in a seperate flight, Saxena is all set to defend himself against Thai authorities' revitalised legal campaign against him.

Being the only reporter on board Flight TG617, which departed Beijing for Bangkok yesterday afternoon after the Vancouver flight landed in the Chinese city, I was told by Thai officials Saxena's doctors didn't want him to talk to virtually anyone, for fear it might increase his stress.

Photo taking was also forbidden, but I managed to take a couple of shots.

Sitting at the back of the plane, he looked a bit tired and concerned, but overall quite composed. He ate some airline foods and spent most of the rest of the time closing his eyes.

From some of those who accompanied him, Saxena hadn't been sure how the Canadian Supreme Court verdict would turn out.

Once his chance of appeal was legally dismissed, he was taken from his home almost immediately to the airport by the police already guarding his home.

Having contributed to Canada's longest extradition saga, the former banker will have to play a different game here in Thailand, and how much he would "politicise" his case remains to be seen.

Thai authorities' immediate task was to decide where to keep Saxena. One hour after Flight TG615 landed at 10.20 pm at the Suvarnabhumi Airport, he was whisked to the Crime Suppression headquarters.

At press time, though, nobody was certain where he was going to spend the first night - a small cell at the Crime Suppression headquarters that had just one clean little bed and a fan (dubbed a haunted room because one inmate had died there), or a bigger, well-equipped room at the Police Hospital boasting a microwave among other furniture.

Doctors were to play a big role in determining where he stayed the first night, and whether he was strong enough to be immediately interrogated.

Wherever he ended up spending the night, though, it would be a far cry from his glass-and-marble home-prison, across the river from Vancouver International Airport.

The Province said Saxena spent the last few years amid his books on Marxism, piles of legal papers and boxes of cigarettes - all of which were surrounded by a ring of air-purifier machines.

While many Thais will cringe on seeing him return, others will be glad.

Wisit Ratanarak, 47, a former lending employee of BBC, recalled the tough time when the BBC was closed.

He said none of the employees knew of the fraud and they were simply told to clear their work three months before the closure. He returned to Ubon Ratchathani and became a socks vendor after failing to get another job.

"Many of us were affected by the case. Some were divorced or died of stress, while others went bankrupt. And some remain unemployed," he said.

Saxena only attracted mild attention from passengers on Flight TG615, but he will be a big focus of political attention in the next few days.