Former premier disappears before verdict in court
BANGKOK — The former prime minister of Thailand, Yingluck Shinawatra, has fled the country, a senior member of her party said Friday, and the Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant after she failed to appear in court.
A lawyer for Yingluck, who is facing a prison sentence of up to 10 years, notified the court Friday morning that the former prime minister had been too ill to attend the reading of the verdict in her case.
But, in fact, she had left Thailand initially for Singapore on Wednesday evening, according to the senior member of the Phue Thai Party, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak on her behalf.
Her failure to appear in court led to widespread speculation that she had fled. Her lawyer, Norawit Larlaeng, told reporters outside the courthouse that he had learned of her illness only an hour before the hearing.
Asked if she was in Thailand, he replied, “I don’t know.”
The prosecution of Yingluck, who was Thailand’s first female prime minister, symbolizes the deep political divide that prevails in the country, run by a military junta that replaced her government three years ago. She has remained a popular figure.
Her no-show was the latest twist in the drama of a political family that transformed Thai politics by capturing support of the rural poor with promises to raise living standards.
She is charged with mismanaging a rice subsidy initiative while in office, costing the country $8 billion. A conviction could effectively ban her from political activities for life.
Hours after her scheduled hearing, the same court sentenced her former commerce minister, Boonsong Teriyapirom, to 42 years in prison on corruption charges related to the rice subsidy program.
More than 1,000 of Yingluck’s supporters gathered in the capital in the vicinity of the courthouse hours before Friday’s scheduled hearing, but police blocked roadways and set up barricades to prevent the crowd from getting close. The supporters showed up even though she had told them not to do so.
Yingluck’s lawyer notified the court that she had Meniere’s disease, which causes fluid buildup in the eardrums, and was suffering dizziness and severe headaches, but the court did not accept the excuse because Yingluck had not sent a doctor’s certificate. It rescheduled the verdict for Sept. 27. The court also ordered her to forfeit her bail of about $900,000.
The case centers on whether Yingluck mismanaged a subsidy program that led to a stockpile of rotting rice.
Unlike her brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who fled the country after he was overthrown by the military in 2006 and was convicted in absentia on corruption charges, Yingluck remained in Thailand fought the charges against her.
There was widespread speculation that Yingluck had gone to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, possibly by way of Cambodia and Singapore, or to Hong Kong. Her brother has been reported to be living in Dubai.