As soon as I heard the news that German authorities had impounded the Crown Prince of Thailand’s plane I knew we were in for a lively few days.

Some media outlets, like The Nation, won’t even mention Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn by name. He is merely a “Thai national”. MCOT plays a straight bat. But Thai Rath isn’t so shy. Nor is the Bangkok Post. It provides more details, and pulls fewer punches. I do wonder, though, whether Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya is exactly right when he claims that “[t]his airplane is personal property, not that of the Thai government. So the German government cannot seize it…”

Bangkok Pundit, a handy chap on legal matters, has a long post sketching out the technicalities.

Apparently Werner Schneider, the insolvency administrator for the firm involved in this dispute, has been summarily banned from entering Thailand. I can’t imagine he’s too fussed. After this brazen move he’s now got the Crown Prince’s plane as leverage. Who would have thought?