Britain has revoked visas for former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife, a Thai government official today confirmed.
Thaksin and Potjaman had skipped bail in August and fled to London claiming they could not get fair trials over corruption charges.
Mr Thaksin, ousted in a 2006 coup, was believed to be travelling in China this week when the visas were revoked, the Nationnewspaper reported.
He was sentenced to two years in jail last month for breaking a conflict of interest law by getting involved in a government agency's sale of a piece of prime land in Bangkok to his wife.
She was cleared of any wrongdoing in the land case, but in July she was sentenced to three years in jail for tax evasion.
Thai prosecutors are urging London to extradite Mr Thaksin, who won two landslide election victories, but was ousted in a 2006 coup on accusations of corruption and abuses of power.
In interviews last month, Mr Thaksin said he was not seeking and would not seek political asylum in Britain as reported by some British media, as he was eligible to visit Britain any time.
The campaign against him is largely driven by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) - an unelected group comprising royalists, academics and businessmen - while he continues to enjoy support in the countryside.
The PAD has occupied the official compound of the prime minister's offices since August, demanding the current government stocked with Thaksin loyalists step aside.
Reuters