A convicted Thai spy returned safely to Bangkok from Phnom Penh on Wednesday after he has served three and a half years in a Cambodian prison.

Veera Somkwamkid, a former ultra-nationalist activist, has been imprisoned at Prey Sar prison in Phnom Penh since 2010 for espionage and illegal entry charges.

The political activist was given royal pardon from King Norodom Sihamoni at the request of top Thai ruler Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha.

He arrived at Suvannabhumi international airport alongside the Thai Foreign Ministry's undersecretary Sihasak Puangketkeow who had visited the Cambodian capital and met with Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday.

The royal pardon for Veera's freedom had been quietly sought by Gen. Prayuth who staged the May 22 coup to depose a Yingluck Shinawatra government, said to have fostered close and cordial relationships with Phnom Penh.

"I will seek to meet Gen. Prayuth to thank him for his mercy," Veera said upon arrival from the Cambodian capital.

He was taken from the airport to the headquarters of the Crime Suppression Division to bail himself out of "terrorism" charges following Bangkok's turbulent street protests against a previous Somchai Wongsawat government several years ago.

The ex-Yellow Shirt activist, who had joined moves against former Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra, brother of Yingluck's, had been thrown in jail since 2010 after a Phnom Penh court had judged him guilty of espionage and illegal entry charges alongside a woman colleague, namely Ratree Pipattanapaiboon.

Five other Thais, including a former legislator, were arrested for allegedly trespassing into Cambodian territory by Cambodian troops in Banteay Meanchey from across the border in the Thai province of Sakeow.

Veera and Ratree who were detained and sentenced to eight and six years in jail for espionage and illegal entry charges respectively had allegedly trespassed with a camera into the premises of a restricted military installation in the Cambodian northwestern province.

Ratree was released after she had served two years in jail, however.

An estimated 220,000 migrant workers from Cambodia scrambled to leave Thailand in the wake of unconfirmed rumors of a sweeping crackdown on illegal aliens by the ruling Thai military last month.

Many have returned to Thailand as the rumors were dismissed as groundless while the Cambodian premier expressed his consent to the Thai authorities' plans to legalize all foreign workers in this country.

An estimated 430,000 Cambodians have worked in this country either in legal or illegal fashion.

Most have been hired as unskilled employees at manufacturing factories, fruit orchards and construction sites. Endi

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