Bangkok: Thailand will Friday deport a five-man plane crew detained in Bangkok with a 35-tonne cache of sanctions-busting arms from North Korea after charges against them were dropped, their lawyer said.
The Belarussian pilot and four Kazakh crew were detained in December after flying into Bangkok to refuel with a cargo which included missiles and rocket-propelled grenades.
Thai authorities initially charged the men with possessing illegal weapons and ammunition, smuggling weapons and other banned products and failing to report the cache.
But on Thursday, the attorney general`s office said it was not in the national interest to pursue the case and that the five would be deported.
"Immigration police will escort them to Suvarnabhumi Airport this afternoon at 5 pm (1000 GMT) and they are scheduled to fly back to Kazakhstan and Belarus respectively on commercial flights," their lawyer Somsak Saithong told AFP.
Thai premier Abhisit Vejjajiva told reporters that officials had already coordinated with their home countries to receive them.
The crew landed at Thailand`s domestic Don Mueang airport in their Ilyushin-76 plane on December 11 for refuelling, claiming that they were carrying oil drilling equipment bound for Ukraine.
The United Nations banned all North Korean arms exports in June last year and the Bangkok case is believed to be the first breach of the resolution.
"This was a matter for the Thai attorney-general`s office to decide. We respect the independence of Thailand`s system," US embassy spokeswoman Cynthia Brown said Friday.
She added that the UN committee set up to enforce the resolution was continuing to investigate the incident.
Abhisit said the government was waiting for the UN`s recommendation on what to do with the haul, which is being held at an air force base north of Bangkok.
A flight plan obtained by investigators showed the plane was bound for Iran -- which has denied it was the destination -- while US intelligence chief Dennis Blair has said it was headed to the Middle East.
PTI
