BANGKOK: Swiss citizen Xavier Andre Justo, who was sentenced to three years jail for blackmailing his former employer, PetroSaudi International, was today denied bail pending the outcome of his appeal against the sentence.
Justo appeared at the Bangkok South Criminal Court for the hearing this morning accompanied by seven correctional officers as well as his Thai lawyer Worasit Piriyawiboon.
He failed to get bail as the court was concerned that he would use the opportunity to escape Thailand.
Worasit told Bernama that he will submit a fresh bail application again next week.
The bail application offering to post a one million baht bail was submitted on Oct 14 together with an appeal against the three-year sentence that was imposed on him on Aug 17.
His case drew interest in Malaysia as Justo had stolen 90 gigabytes of data from PetroSaudi International and given copies to Sarawak Report editor and founder Claire Rewcastle Brown, as well the owner of the Edge Media Group Tong Kooi Ong.
The Malaysian police are also interested in interviewing Justo in connection with his relationship with them as the data included business dealings between PetroSaudi International and 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), and there were claims that there have been tampering of the data.
Justo had denied he tampered with the data and stated any tampering was done by others.
1MDB has come under the spotlight in Malaysia over its business dealings.
-- Bernama