Xavier Andre Justo, the Swiss national who was arrested by Thai police on Monday for alleged blackmail and extortion, has been denied bail and is being held at the Southern Bangkok Criminal Court lock-up.

He will be facing Thai law for his alleged offences despite earlier reports that he would be deported.

Royal Thai Police spokesperson police lieutenant general Prawut Thavornsiri told Malaysiakini last night that the alleged offences were committed in Thailand.

“He was arrested here, so he will be charged in Thailand,” he said when contacted. It is understood that Xavier will be brought to court to face remand proceedings today.

                                  

According to a police source from Thailand’s crime suppression division that made the arrest, Justo has already appointed a team of lawyers.

Justo, 49, former information technology (IT) department director for oil and gas company PetroSaudi International, was charged for allegedly blackmailing his former employer for 2.5 million Swiss francs (RM10 million).

He had allegedly threatened to release confidential information that he had purportedly stolen from the company.

According to the source who requested anonymity, Justo had sent an email to PetroSaudi requesting a meeting in October last year.

Subsequently, a PetroSaudi executive flew to Thailand to meet Justo at a hotel in Bangrak area in downtown Bangkok.

Justo allegedly demanded 2.5 million Swiss Francs in return for not revealing confidential business information to third parties. Apparently, no deal was struck. The Thai police have since obtained CCTV footage of the meeting.

The source said that while Justo had admitted meeting with the PetroSaudi executive, he claimed the 2.5 million Swiss Francs was the remaining sum of compensation the company was supposed to pay him after his employment was terminated in 2011.

However, according to the police source, Justo had already received a sizable sum of money from the company when he left four years ago.

It is believed that the PetroSaudi executive lodged a police report on the alleged extortion in Bangkok about two months ago.

No extradition yet

                      

Justo was arrested at around 3pm on June 22 at his luxury house in Koh Samui, a popular tourist destination in the southern Thai province of Surat Thani.

According to the police source, Justo often travelled between Europe and Koh Samui, where he has been living with his wife and children.

“His wife and kids had left Thailand shortly before the arrest,” said the source, who is part of the investigation team.

                      

The police have confiscated Justo’s computers and mobile phones, including a Blackberry phone.

The investigation and arrest was done under Thai law by Thai police. The source also said that Interpol and the Malaysian authorities were not involved in the case.

The Thai authorities will be proceeding to put Justo on trial in Bangkok and there is as yet no plan of extraditing him to United Kingdom where PetroSaudi had also made a police report.

                                              

PetroSaudi in 2009 was involved in a joint venture with 1MDB, the controversial Malaysian government-owned investment fund.

1MDB injected US$1 billion into the deal, but soon after US$700 million of the money was allegedly taken out of the joint venture and given directly to PetroSaudi Caymans as a ‘loan’.

According to 1MDB, initial investigations have shown that Justo had leaked PetroSaudi’s emails, some of which it allegeded had been tampered with. It is unclear what information was allegedly edited.

Online news portal Sarawak Report had, relying on the email communications, claimed that PetroSaudi was used as a front by 1MDB to channel funds to Good Star Limited, a company which is supposedly controlled by Malaysian tycoon Jho Low, who is close to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's family.

Following Justo’s arrest, Sarawak Report has raised concerns that Thai authorities may have been used to exact revenge on Justo as its police and courts “have no valid jurisdiction” on the matter.

According to the police source, Thai authorities are only investigating the extortion claim, not the alleged leaking or tampering of sensitive company information.

There is also a possibility that Justo may eventually be extradited back to Switzerland, or to the UK.