Daily Times

BANGKOK: Thailand’s ex-prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra missed a court appearance in a negligence trial on Friday that could have seen her jailed, prompting the Supreme Court to issue an arrest warrant amid snowballing speculation that she has fled the country.

Thousands of supporters — outnumbered by security forces — waited from dawn for a glimpse of Thailand’s first female prime minister, but she did not show, with a senior party source telling AFP she is “likely in Singapore”.

If her flight is confirmed, Yingluck will have joined her billionaire brother Thaksin in self-exile — a knock-out blow to the family and their political ambitions.

Thailand is deeply divided between the Shinawatras and their political base, which is mainly drawn from the rural poor; and a royalist army-aligned elite, who loathe the clan and refuse to cede power to democratic governments.

Yingluck’s government was removed by a military coup in 2014. In a day of high drama, Yingluck ducked her court hearing for negligence over a flagship rice subsidy policy, which carried up to 10 years in prison and a life ban from politics. “Her lawyer said she is sick and asked to delay the ruling… the court does not believe she is sick… and has decided to issue an arrest warrant,” fearing she may flee the country, lead judge Cheep Chulamon told the court, rescheduling the verdict to September 27.

A minister in her government was jailed hours later for 42 years in a separate trial for corruption linked to the policy.

Thai junta chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha denied knowledge of her whereabouts but ordered border checkpoints

“to be stepped up,” while his number-two Prawit Wongsuwon said it was “possible” Yingluck had fled through neighbouring Cambodia.

A senior source in the Shinawatras Pheu Thai party told AFP that “as of now she is likely in Singapore… it’s impossible she left without the military greenlight.” Yingluck’s brother, Thaksin Shinawatra also a former premier, fled Thailand in 2008 before he was convicted of graft and handed a two year jail term.

The telecoms tycoon who once owned Manchester City football club, has not returned since and his Thai passport has been revoked.

Published in Daily Times, August 26^th 2017.