KUALA LUMPUR: 'Missing' private investigator P. Balasubramaniam is free to come and go for now and can remain overseas if he wishes to as he has not been charged yet, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar.

However, Syed Hamid said if Balasubramaniam was still in Thailand and was charged, he could be extradited home as Malaysia has an extradition treaty with Thailand.

"At present, there is no charge against him. But if he is charged and refuses to come back, then that is a different story. Now, he is a 'free agent' and it is up to him if he wants to come back," he told reporters Saturday after addressing the Blogger's Buff 2008 conference here.

Syed Hamid was asked whether police would seek to extradite Balasubramaniam whom police met in Bangkok in July.

On Thursday, Syed Hamid in a written reply to Batu MP Tian Chua in Parliament, said the police went to Bangkok to record Balasubramaniam's statements on his two contradictory statutory declarations on the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu, which were made less than 24 hours apart.

Syed Hamid had told Tian Chua that was the police's last contact with Balasubramaniam, whose whereabouts are currently unknown.

He had also said that the police are not protecting him and that the Attorney-General's Chambers is looking at the possibility of charging him.

On Saturday, Syed Hamid said the police would leave it up to the A-G?s Chambers to decide whether there is a case against Balasubramaniam. An extradition, he said, would only occur if Balasubramaniam refuses to return home if he is overseas.

"The police have finished their investigations. If the A-G's Chambers decides there is a case and it wants an extradition and it wants to charge him, then the police will carry out their job.

"I don't know where he is but I?m sure when there is a warrant of arrest, the police have ways of finding out," he added.

On the police's responsibility to ensure that Balasubramaniam felt safe in his own country, Syed Hamid said it would be a human rights problem if Balasubramaniam was told not to go overseas when there was no charge against him.

Balasubramaniam was also being sought as a key witness by one of the accused who had been ordered to enter his defence in Altantuya's murder trial.