BANGKOK - FORMER Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who fled the country after being handed a two-year jail term for graft, claimed he was given police security when he stayed overnight in Malaysia earlier this month. But this was flatly denied by the Malaysian police yesterday evening.

'My private jet stopped for refuelling in Malaysia and they sent 20 Special Branch policemen to guard me,' Thaksin said in a phone-in to a community radio station on Monday. 'They love and care about me.'

The Thai authorities had said earlier that the billionaire was in Malaysia on July 4 and had left the next day for Fiji before Thai police could take action. He reportedly ended his island-hopping in the South Pacific and flew back to Dubai last Friday.

But Malaysia's police chief Musa Hassan refuted Thaksin's claims. 'We were alerted by the Thai Embassy here of the fugitive's supposed presence early this month following a news report in Bangkok.

'As far as we are concerned, he was never in the country and we did not send 20 Special Branch officers to protect him. We have checked with local hotels, immigration and other sources, and there is no evidence to show that he was ever here.'

Thaksin has been in self-exile since he was convicted of corruption charges, and the Thai authorities have been trying to have him extradited to serve his jail sentence. Thailand had asked the Fijian government to arrest him after learning he was there, but it has no extradition treaty with Fiji.

THE NATION/ASIA NEWS NETWORK, XINHUA, THE STAR