August 13, 2008
Bangkok - The Office of the Attorney-General has started to seek a way to extradite the ousted primer minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Thaksin failed to appear before the Supreme Court on Monday, saying the political intervention would rob him of a fair trial on corruption charges.
A warrant was already issued for his arrest and his extradition is being sought, according to the head of the attorney general's international affairs department.
"We held an internal meeting Monday to study the legal details and aspects of the case," Sirisak Tiyapan told AFP.
But he added that so far no government agency has actually filed a motion requesting the attorney general to seek Thaksin's return to Thailand.
"Whether we can successfully extradite him depends on the country we put the request to. So far there is no formal request yet," Sirisak said.
Thaksin had spent 18 months in exile after the military coup in 2006.
Experts said it would be difficult to extradite him from the United Kingdom because the charges against him are not explicitly covered by existing treaties between the two countries.
