DUBAI (United Arab Emirates) - FORMER Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is in the United Arab Emirates visiting 'old friends and business associates,' Thailand's top diplomat in Dubai said on Wednesday.
Thai Consul-General in Dubai Pasan Teparak said Thaksin will be in the United Arab Emirates 'for some time', but quickly added the former prime minister is 'not staying long'.
'We don't know his plans,' Mr Teparak said. 'He has no official status in the government, so we don't keep track of his movements.'
A picture in Dubai-based Khaleej Times newspaper on Wednesday showed Thaksin shaking hands with an Emirates' government official in Abu Dhabi. The Dubai government owns a significant stake in the paper's publisher.
The photo caption in the English-language daily said Thaksin met with the minister of higher education and scientific research Sheik Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan on Tuesday.
Thaksin faces two years in jail after a Thai court convicted him of conflict of interest in a land deal. Since the verdict last month, Thaksin's whereabouts outside Thailand have been source of intense speculation.
Dubai has frequently been mentioned as a potential haven, and the Persian Gulf boomtown has played host to out-of-favor overseas officials in the past. But an immigration official in Dubai said last week he was unaware of any interest by Thaksin in coming to live here.
An official at Thai embassy in Abu Dhabi said Wednesday he only learned of Thaksin's visit through media reports.
Kobboon Sangmanee, the second secretary at Thailand's embassy in Abu Dhabi, said the former prime minister had not contacted the embassy for assistance.
UAE officials have not contacted the Thai embassy regarding Thaksin status, Mr Sangmanee said.
Thaksin has had contacts with envoys of Abu Dhabi's ruling family since earlier this year, when he agreed to sell the Manchester City football team to a group led by Sheik Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the brother of the Abu Dhabi's ruler and the UAE's president.
'He has a lot of contacts here, because he sold the Manchester City club,' said Teparak. 'He is on a private visit, seeing old friends and business associates.' Oil-rich Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven semi-independent states that includes Dubai on the Persian Gulf. -- AP
