Hopes rise for businessman’s release from Thailand

Xavier Justo (left) at his trial in Thailand Keystone

A Swiss national, who claims to have blown the whistle on the 1MDB Malaysian wealth fund scandal, could be released back to Switzerland following a royal pardon, according to media reports.

Xavier Justo was sentenced to a three-year jail term in Thailand in 2015 after pleading guilty to blackmailing his former employer, PetroSaudi International. Before his conviction, Justo leaked sensitive documents on PetroSaudi’s business dealings with 1MDB, to the media.

He later admitted in court to attempting to blackmail is former employer at a Bangkok hotel, but his supporters claim he was coerced into the confession.

Reuters news agency and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) newspaper on Wednesday both quoted Justo’s lawyer saying his client had been reprieved by royal pardon. Justo is expected back in Switzerland within the next few weeks, the reports say.

But the NZZ article also warns that two previous claims of amnesty had proved to be false dawns for Justo.

Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter has previously intervened in the case, asking his Thai counterpart in January that Justo be transferred to Switzerland.

On Wednesday, the foreign ministry said it had taken note of the traditional Thai royal pardons for prisoners. But it added that its embassy in Bangkok had not yet been told if Justo was included on the list.

“We are currently in the process of verifying if and in which way Swiss nationals will be benefitting from it,” the written statement said.

The Swiss Attorney General is among several global law enforcement offices that are formally investigating the 1MDB case. It is believed that some $4 billion (CHF3.9 billion) of funds have been misappropriated from the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.

Several Swiss banks, most notably BSI, have been caught up in the scandal.