Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra will prove today whether or not he is welcome in the United Arab Emirates as he leaves Montenegro to head back to his exile residence in Dubai.
"The UAE has reaffirmed many times that they prefer good relations with the government, rather than personal relations with Thaksin," he said.
As usual, Thaksin showed up via video link last night calling on his red-shirt supporters to stick with the rally and denounce the "aristocrat-controlled" government, though he did not say where he was based. The background of the teleconference, however, seemed to be different.
On Wednesday night, he said he would return to Dubai yesterday once he had finished his business engagement in Montenegro.
The government has tried but failed several times to identify Thaksin's location so it can have the host country block his movements during the red-shirt rally.
The former PM has been in the newly born Balkan country of Montenegro since last Saturday and has appeared to his red-shirt supporters via teleconference every night.
"Thaksin is a citizen of Montenegro and he is here at the moment. The police have no grounds to take any measures based on its competencies," the Montenegrin police statement was quoted saying by AFP.
The fugitive former PM was reportedly earlier interested in buying up a mortgaged island in the country.
Last year, Thaksin's name was mentioned as a foreign businessman who was bidding for the purchase of part of the Sveti Nikola Island at the initial price of ¤21 million (Bt923 million).
The island of Sveti Nikola is less than a kilometre from the city of Budva and it has three sandy beaches covering 840 metres, according to the Visit-Montenegro website.
Thaksin has also said on his Twitter page that he had invested in a hotel in Montenegro and that it was being renovated.
Panich said that though Thaksin might have obtained Montenegrin citizenship based on his investment, he did not believe that it would grant him any political rights in the country.
As long as Thaksin's Thai citizenship is not revoked, he can still be punished under Thai law, he said.
However, he added, the Foreign Ministry was not likely to make any moves to get Thaksin from Montenegro. Panich said his ministry had other jobs than just following every footstep of the former PM.
Meanwhile, Montenegro Foreign Minister Milan Rocen said the Thai government had told his ministry that Thaksin "could influence rising tensions in Thailand from some third country".
"We will respond that not only in the case of Mr Shinawatra, but if anybody tried from Montenegro to do something against the interest of any other country, the authorities of Montenegro would never let him do so," Rocen was quoted as saying by AFP.
