26 Apr 2024, 20:20 Kuching
26 Apr 2024, 13:20 London
Thailand has refused a request by Switzerland to repatriate a Swiss national, convicted of selling information to anti-government groups in Malaysia, so he can serve the rest of his sentence in his home…
Viktor Vavricka, the Swiss embassy’s charge d’affaires, said Bern regretted Bangkok’s refusal to allow Andre Xavier Justo — involved in exposing the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal — to be jailed in Switzerland.
“The Swiss embassy is aware the transfer request has been refused by the Thai authorities, a development the Swiss authorities regret,” Mr Vavricka wrote in an email to the Bangkok Post.
However, official notification of the decision is still pending. The safety and integrity of Mr Justo is of utmost priority to the Swiss authorities which continue to follow this case closely.”
Sarawak Report politely reminds the Bangkok Post that the information released by Justo formed the basis of a US Department of Justice indictment confirming that billions of dollars had been stolen from a public fund and passed into the Malaysian Prime Minister’s personal accounts.
He did not give the information to “anti-government forces”, which implies some kind of illegal guerrilla army was the recipient. He gave it to a business newspaper The Edge and to Sarawak Report and the UK Sunday Times newspaper, which are independent bodies with no vested interests in Malaysian politics. He did not receive any money for the data.
His conviction was secured through a forced, false confession obtained from him in a Thai jail by British operatives paid by the company PetroSaudi, which was deeply involved in the theft from 1MDB and which had made the original criminal complaint against Justo.
This outrageous and astonishing criminal conspiracy against the people of Malaysia and against a Swiss who tried to expose it ought to be the subject of a number of potential stories for any half-decent newspaper based in Bangkok.
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