Rakesh Saxena loses appeal against extradition to Thailand

Bangkok, Mar 5 (UNI) A Canadian court has rejected the India-born Rakesh Saxena's appeal against his extradition to Thailand to face charges of complicity in a 1996 Thai bank failure, which triggered the Southeast Asian financial crisis.

Thai authorities said they were awaiting the British Columbia Court of Appeal dismissing Mr Saxena's petition against the Canadian justice minister's order to extradite Mr Saxena to Thailand.

Mr Saxena is, however, expected to appeal against the court decision in Canada's Supreme Court, Canadian prosecutors were reported as saying by newspapers here today.

Mr Saxena who left Thailand in 1996 following the collapse of the Bangkok Bank of Commerce (BCC), lives under self-financed house arrest in Vancouver, Canada. He is challenging the extradition order alleging that his life would be in danger if he returned to Thailand.

''Hopefully, this will be the end of this case. I personally hope that the process will be resolved quickly,'' said Poramate Intarachunum, spokesperson of Thailand's Attorney-General's office.

''We submitted a considerable amount of information related to the BBC case to the court to make our case,'' he added.

Earlier this year, a Bangkok criminal court handed down guilty verdicts against former senior officials of the BBC to which Mr Saxena was financial adviser.

Former BBC president, Krirkkiat Jalichandra and three other former BBC officials were found guilty of colluding with Mr Saxena in defrauding the bank.

In September 2000, a lower court in Canada had ruled that Mr Saxena be extradited to Thailand, but the Canadian government did not endorse the extradition till November 2003. Mr Saxena subsequently appealed against the ruling.

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