Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said he expected to know within three days whether Phra Prommethi, former assistant abbot of Wat Samphanthawong, could be extradited from Germany to Thailand to face charges related to temple fund embezzlement.
He said German officials had informed Thai authorities that the process would take about two months, but the Thai side requested that the process should be accelerated to just three days.
A team of police and public prosecutors led by Pol Gen Chakthip Chaijinda, the national police chief, is now in Germany to arrange for the senior monk to be returned to Thailand. Earlier, the police expected that the monk could be flown home on Thursday, but now it appears that the process may drag on as the monk has asked for asylum in Germany.
However, Pol Gen Veerachai Songmetta, the national deputy police chief, maintained that he had not received any report suggesting that Pol Gen Chakthip is in Germany to arrange for the monk’s comeback.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, meanwhile, urged the media not to present their reports on Phra Prommethi in a way that the monk was seen as being bullied or in a way that the case against him was politically motivated.
He cautioned that the case against the senior monk was treated as a political case, then it would be difficult to get him back for trial.
With the exception of Phra Prommethi, the other seven senior monks implicated in the temple fund scam have been arrested by the police and now held in prison pending further interrogations.
The seven arrested monks are Phra Prommasith, Phra Rat-uppasenaporn, Phra Ratkitjaporn, Phra Methisutthikorn and Phra Srikunaporn of Wat Saket and Phra Promdilok and Phra Atthakitsophon of Wat Sam Phraya.
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