This is a question of whether they can bring a case and not whether the Court should or will accept the case. If there are no grounds to bring a case, the ICC can simply dismiss the case so, for the red shirts to have any hope, Abhisit has to be a UK citizen.
This is an update to a previous post looking at whether Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is a British citizen. Please note, and as mentioned below, this is not a question of his eligibility to be Thai PM, but if he is a British citizen then that it may be possible to bring a case to the ICC because the UK is a signatory – Thailand is not.
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Patrick Winn for Global Post:
The British government, however, would not confirm the renunciation when contacted by GlobalPost. “We don’t comment on individual cases,” said Sam Eversden with the U.K. Home Office. “Even if it’s the prime minister of Thailand.”
Abhisit was undoubtedly a U.K. citizen at one point. The prime minister was born in Newcastle, England, in 1964 to Thai parents. Anyone born on British soil before 1983 was automatically conferred U.K. citizenship by law.
The premier’s name at birth was “Mark A. Vejjajiva,” according to a U.K. birth registry obtained by GlobalPost through an online records agency. He also holds Thai citizenship, as does any person born to two parents with Thai citizenship regardless of location.
“He has the right to citizenship in both countries: one obtained from blood, one obtained from being born on the land,” said Bongkot Napaumporn from the Bangkok Legal Clinic at Thailand’s Thammasat University. “There is no law forbidding double citizens.”
Though any proof of U.K. citizenship would scar Abhisit politically, it probably wouldn’t terminate his premiership.
There is no Thai law forcing politicians to renounce their second citizenship before assuming power, Bongkot said. However, a second citizenship can be revoked if Thai authorities determine it jeopardizes national security, she said.
BP: Patrick has obtained an image of the UK birth registry – although there is no doubt that Abhisit was born in the UK. BP is not sure that what Bongkot says is correct about revoking a second citizenship. The Thai authorities cannot revoke his UK citizenship. Revocation of or renunciation of UK citizenship has to be done in accordance with UK law. Of course, if she means second citizenship as in Thai citizenship, well yes the Thai authorities can renounce that.
At yesterday’s rally, the red shirts raised it again per Reuters:
Thailand has not ratified the ICC’s Rome Statute, meaning the ICC has no jurisdiction. However, red shirt leader Jatuporn Prompan told the crowd that Abhisit could be investigated, claiming the premier held both British and Thai nationality. The British-born Abhisit told Thai television on Saturday he was a Thai citizen and was classed as a foreign student while at Britain’s Eton College and Oxford University. However, he did not explicitly deny holding dual nationality.
BP: Thai Rath has the quote in Thai, which is as Reuters reports. That Abhisit paid the higher fee while studying is irrelevant as noted in the previous post because in the UK it is residency and not nationality which allows one to pay the lower local fee. One can be a British citizen, but if you are deemed to be only in the UK to receive full-time education then you pay the higher overseas/foreign fee. Given Abhisit returned to Thailand after his studies and his family was in Thailand, it would not be surprising if it was concluded he was not ordinarily resident as the main purpose of residence was to receive full-time education. Hence, if the rules were followed Abhisit should have been required to pay the foreign/overseas fee – which he states he did – and this does not mean he is not a British citizen…
See original here:
Is the Thai PM a British citizen? Part II
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