The Nation
Cambodia on Thursday refused to free the two Thai activists jailed on spy charges but offered a deal to swap them with Cambodian prisoners jailed in Thailand.
Thai Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul said Phnom Penh insisted that Veera Somkwamkid and Ratree Wiwattanapaibul have to serve a portion of their jail terms as stipulated in the law before being eligible to request for royal pardon.
Surapong was in Phnom Penh Wednesday to hold talks with his Cambodian counterpart, Hor Nam Hong. Top on the agenda was the fate of Veera and Ratree who were arrested along with other Thais on December 28 last year while inspecting a border area.
The other Thais were freed after a Cambodian court suspended their jail terms. Veera and Ratree were sentenced to eight and six years in jail respectively.
Surapong said he would ask authorities concerned to consider Cambodia's latest offer as it is the first case and the country has no experience of this.
Meanwhile Veera's mother; Wilaiwan, met Surapong at the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh to ask the minister to talk to Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen and help secure freedom for her son and Ratree.
7 comments:
of course, nothing is free in cambodia, ok! cambodia and thailand must have a treaty to exchange their prisoners, that's better than just releasing these thugs for free, you know! good move, cambodia!
Thailand are amateurs. They went to negotiate the fate of their two prisoners without all their ducks in the row. They should have gone in with every possible scenerios including prisoners swapping.
You can disagree with many issues with our government. But one thing for sure, when dealing with Thailand, our government are relatively well prepared.
One thing that we have to let the Siam know is this, when Thailand deported our people back to Cambodia, they put them in cages like animals. Our government treated their prisoners like they are our tour guests. You can judge which country is more civilized. Thailand always talk the talk, but don't walk the walk.
siem are biased toward cambodia all the time, that's why cambodia are not fond of their evil intention toward cambodia, you see! what goes around will come around eventually, of course. only time will tell as nobody on earth lives forever, you know! cambodia will always be here on earth, so thailand must treat us right or we will never cooperate well with them, period!
Cambodia has no position to let the two convicted spies go until time is served. It's the Thai who offered the deal to swap the prisoners. Thai media The Nation and Bangkok Post are known to twist the truth in their reporting.
From Phnom Penh's
WesternerObserver,
WHAT DO WE EXPECT FRO AH DICKHEAD HUN XEN??????
A LOW BLOW TO THE DEATH JUSTICE??? SO WHAT AH KWACK FOUL MOUTH IS A LAW IN THE CONDOME OF CAMBODIA!
Cambodia must stand tall for its people and its interests whether it is Vietnam or Thailand. We must continue the trend of self-reliance and independently running its own interests free from foreigners' meddling.
We'd like to see Cambodian gov't pay more attention to its own people well beings such as support for SMEs, invest in healthcare, raise standard on education, allocate lands to farmers for permanent ownership, no forced eviction, protect irreversible environments, regulate emission on cars and motorcycles, educate chemical pesticide usage on farming, continue investing infrastructures and canals for farming, and last but not least is to protect homeland at all time agains all odds. WE must not give in to aggressors. We may be small but we must fight with heads.
I would give PM Hun Sen and his government a credit for the proposal to exchange the prisoners.
The welfare of Cambodians in Thai jails must be a prime concern of the government and this is a good opportunity to set them free and bring them home so they can be reunited with their families.
Cambodia should demand at least 10 or even 20 to 1 considering that Veera and Ratree are high-profile cases!
Pissed off
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