Germany blacklists Thailand's fugitive Thaksin

By Darren Schuettler

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Germany has revoked a residence permit held by fugitive Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a German diplomat said on Wednesday, the latest country to shun the former leader who fled a two-year jail term at home.

Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and lives in self-imposed exile, entered Germany late last year and acquired the permit from authorities in the city of Bonn.

"We asked Bonn to revoke the permit and they responded immediately and revoked the permit," Hanns Schumacher, Germany's ambassador to Thailand, told Reuters.

The former telecoms tycoon, who led Thailand for nearly six years, has seen his living options reduced since Britain revoked his visa last year after he was convicted on conflict of interest charges.

Bangkok has sought extradition agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong, where Thaksin has spent time since fleeing the country while on bail.

Despite being on a German blacklist, Thaksin entered the country on Dec. 29 using a French-issued Schengen visa, which allows a person to travel in the European Union on a single visa.

"We blacklisted Thaksin in December last year, but somehow he managed to get around it," Schumacher said.

Thaksin then acquired a residence permit from authorities in Bonn using the address of his lawyer in Germany. Federal officials only learned about it in April and ordered it revoked.

"We informed the lawyer that the permit was revoked and should Mr. Thaksin still be in Germany, his stay would be illegal and he would face detention," Schumacher said.

The lawyer said Thaksin had left after staying only a few days in Germany.

Thaksin's current whereabouts are unknown, but some Thai media reports have placed the 60-year-old in the Middle East.

In April, he was in the West African country of Liberia claiming to be on the lookout for investment opportunities. That same month, the Nicaraguan government confirmed he was a "special ambassador" of the Central American country.

Thai courts have issued several arrest warrants for Thaksin, and the government revoked his passport in April, accusing him of instigating anti-government protests that turned violent and triggered a state of emergency in Bangkok.

Nearly three years after the bloodless military coup that ousted Thaksin, Thailand remains deeply divided by a political crisis that has badly damaged confidence in the export and tourism-driven economy.

In broad terms, the prolonged political crisis is a battle between the royalist elite, military and urban Thais who accused Thaksin of corruption and abuses of power during his time in office, and his supporters mainly drawn from millions of rural poor.