Thailand's Foreign Ministry said Thursday that it will not revoke passports of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife Potjaman until it receives court orders.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Tharit Jarungwat was quoted by local media as saying Thursday that the passports of Thaksin and Pojaman, who are facing arrest warrants for failing to appear as defendants for the first hearing in a controversial land purchase case on Tuesday, are still valid.
Tharit said the Foreign Ministry has full authority to revoke their passports, and it will do so when it receives court orders.
He refused to comment on whether passport revocation will force the pair to return to Thailand.
A tribunal under Thailand's Supreme Court Tuesday afternoon approved to issue arrest warrants for Thaksin and Pojaman as they failed to appear at the court on corruption charges.
The charges involve a 772-million-baht (23.4 million U.S. dollars in current exchange rate), five-hectare land purchase deal in Bangkok's downtown Ratchadaphisek area, which changed hands from the Office of the Financial Institutes Development Fund to Pojaman, wife of then prime minister Thaksin, in 2003.
Thaksin and his wife were charged of breaching anti-corruption laws, which bars state officials and their spouses from doing business with a state agency.
Thaksin remained in a self-imposed exile in Britain, with his family's company, since he was ousted as prime minister in the Sept. 19 coup last year.
Source: Xinhua
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