The Swedish Foreign Ministry confirms that the Thai Government on Monday did request the Swedish government to ask Thaksin Shinawatra to leave Sweden. But Sweden did not ask him to leave, says Anders Joerle, head of the press department of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
The contact between the Thai government and the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs was not in writing byt merely a phonecall.
“The contact was made by phone from the Thai Embassy in Stockholm to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. There was also a similar phone call to the Swedish Embassy in Thailand from the Thai Ministry for Foreign Affairs,” he says.
– Did you ask Thaksin to leave Sweden?
“We did not contact him,” he says.
Anders Joerle also has no knowledge of anyone else that could have contacted Thaksin and asked him to leave.
“There was no contact between any part of the Swedish government and Thaksin. The only contact he had with official Sweden was with the immigration police upon his entry and his exit,” he says.
Anders Joerle does not know which of Thaksin’s passports that he had used when entering and leaving Sweden. He did know either if he left by his own private plane or by a commercial airline.
Because Thaksin is not on any international list of wanted criminals, he is free to enter and exit Sweden as long as he has valid travel documents.
– If Thaksin had been making his phone-in to his followers demonstrating in Bangkok while he was still on Swedish soil, would that land him on a black list in Sweden?
“No we have freedom of speech in Sweden. He is free to call and speak to whoever he wants.”
Only if Thaksin had agitated for his followers to commit an act of terrorism, it would have been a problem.
“That’s a different situation, but that would have been illegal in Sweden, too”, he says.
After he left Sweden, Thaksin made a phone-in to his followers on Tuesday, saying that he was now in Russia.
Previous story: Thaksin Stayed in Sweden Several Days
