Thailand's former PM 'joins brother in exile in Dubai' to avoid trial verdict
27 Aug 2017 10:20 PM IST
BANGKOK: Thailand's former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was facing up to ten years in prison if convicted for charges of negligence, has fled to Dubai, according to senior members of her party.
The politician reportedly flew to Dubai where her brother, another former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, lives in self-imposed exile to avoid a prison sentence for corruption.
She had pleaded not guilty to the charge, which relates to a rice-buying policy she implemented after becoming the country's first female Prime Minister in 2011.
"We heard that she went to Cambodia and then Singapore from where she flew to Dubai. She has arrived safely and is there now," said a senior member of the Puea Thai Pary speaking anonymously to Reuters. Up to 3,000 supporters gathered outside the court in Bangkok on Friday where Ms Yingluck was due to hear a verdict in the negligence trial against her. After the 50-year-old failed to show up at the appointed hour, the court issued a statement saying she had cited a health problem as the reason for the no-show.
The court did not accept her excuse as a valid reason and moved the verdict to 27 September before issuing a warrant for the arrest of the former Prime Minister.
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