Thai custody for arms plane crew

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A Thai court has ordered the crew of a plane suspected of carrying 30 tonnes of weapons from North Korea to be held for a further 12 days without bail.

The five men, four from Kazakhstan and one from Belarus, have been charged with illegally possessing heavy weapons and misstating details of the cargo.

They were detained on Saturday after requesting a stop in Bangkok to refuel.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has hailed the affair as a model for putting UN sanctions in action.

"We were very pleased to see the strong action taken by the Thais and it would not have been possible without strong action in the United Nations," she told reporters in Washington.

"I think there's a lesson there for people around the world to see when it comes to Iran."

As a result of their nuclear activities, both North Korea and Iran are under UN Security Council sanctions forbidding other UN member-states to import weapons from them.

Thai media have been reporting that Saturday's detention of the plane resulted from a US tip-off.

Destination unknown

When the aircraft was inspected, it was found to be carrying rocket-propelled grenades, explosives and missile components.

The Il-76 was unloaded by Thai soldiers

The aircraft is believed to have started its journey in Central Asia, making several stops on its way to North Korea, including a brief stop in Thailand on Friday.

But when it returned on Saturday morning to the same Bangkok airport to refuel, the plane was searched and the huge cache of weapons discovered.

The crucial question which remains unanswered is where the plane was ultimately heading, the BBC's Rachel Harvey reports from Bangkok.

Several local reports suggest that Sri Lanka may have been the next scheduled re-fuelling stop.

But beyond that, theories vary wildly from Pakistan to Yemen, our correspondent says.

'Oil-drilling equipment'

The five men say they had no idea they were carrying a cargo of arms.

"They thought it was a civilian freight flight, carrying oil-drilling pipes and other equipment for oil drilling," said defence lawyer Somsak Saithong.

"They have delivered such equipment a few times," the lawyer said, adding that three of the crew were trained pilots.

If convicted, the five face prison terms of up to 10 years.

The plane, a Soviet-designed Il-76, is registered in Georgia, Thai officials say.

The US embassy in Bangkok said it could not confirm or deny any US role in the interception of the plane.