Thailand’s ex-prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra is believed have fled to Dubai after disappearing on the day she was due to appear in court to face charges of negligence.
A warrant was issued for the arrest of the 50-year-old politician when she failed to turn up to Thailand’s Supreme Court on Friday.
Leaders of the military junta have ordered increased border security, as the PM is reported to be ‘safe and sound’ in Dubai, according to a source in her Pheu Thai party.
Wanted woman: A warrant was issued for the arrest of Yingluck Shinawatra, 50, when she failed to turn up to Thailand’s Supreme Court on Friday
Another senior member of her party claims the former PM left Thailand several days ago.
‘She is definitely no longer here, she is likely in Singapore now,’ A senior source in the Shinawatras Pheu Thai party said Friday, adding: ‘she left on Wednesday.’
The other source, who told CNN the former PM was now in Dubai, supported the idea that she left her country on Wednesday.
Thousands of supporters – outnumbered by security forces – had waited from dawn for a glimpse of Thailand’s first female prime minister, but she did not show.
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.
If that had been confirmed, Yingluck would 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.
Supporters of former Thai Premier Yinluck Shinawatra gathered at the Supreme Court in Bangkok to catch a glimpse of the ousted PM, but she did not show up
Supporters of Thailand’s former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra display her images outside the Supreme Court after Yingluck failed to show up to hear a verdict in Bangkok
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.
The telecoms tycoon, who once owned Manchester City football club, has not returned since and his Thai passport has been revoked.
He is believed to use a Montenegrin passport to travel between homes in Dubai, London, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Anyone here? There was no answer at the home of former Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra after her no-show at court
The clan had clung on in Thailand’s treacherous political game for more than a decade despite two coups, deadly protests, a cascade of legal cases and huge asset seizures.
Thaksin remains a galvanising force for his party and a canny political operator.
But analysts say if both siblings are now in exile their time in Thailand’s spin dryer political arena is over.
‘It is the end of the Shinawatras and the Pheu Thai party in politics,’ Puangthong Pawakpan, a Thai politics expert at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University.
‘With two family members as fugitives, the family loses political legitimacy,’ she said, adding that Yingluck’s departure would be welcomed by a Thai junta weary of the prospect of her political martyrdom in jail.
Her flagship rice subsidy poured cash on her family’s rural political heartland, paying up to twice the market rate for the grain.
Thaksin remains loathed by the Bangkok royalist elite but cherished by the rural poor
But it was beset by graft and led to billions of dollars of losses.
She pleaded not guilty to the charges, saying she is the victim of a ‘subtle political game.’
Rumours of her flight were met with understanding from supporters who lingered outside the court.
‘The Thai prime minister has done her best, she has sacrificed a lot,’ said 64-year-old Seksan Chalitaporn.
‘Now the people have to fight for themselves.’
Yingluck Shinawatra
In a Facebook post on Thursday Yingluck asked her followers to stay home to avoid any incidents stoked by people with ‘ill-intention against the country and us’.
The Shinawatra family emerged as a political force in 2001 when billionaire patriarch Thaksin swept to power.
He jump-started the economy and provided the most extensive pro-poor welfare schemes in Thai history.
But critics accused him of using political power to further his business interests.
He remains loathed by the Bangkok royalist elite but cherished by the rural poor.
A coup toppled him in 2006 and he fled overseas.
Historically the Shinawatras have been able to mobilise huge crowds of supporters – known as the ‘Red Shirts’ – to take to the streets when the family’s political fortunes have waned.
But three years of repressive junta rule has successfully quashed any widespread opposition to the military for now.
The country’s democratic future also looks bleak, with a junta-scripted constitution severely cramping the power of any future elected governments.
The junta has trailed elections for next year, but the timetable has repeatedly slipped.
WHO ARE THE SHINAWATRAS? A GUIDE TO THAILAND’S ‘FIRST FAMILY OF POLITICS’
Yingluck Shinawatra was born in 1967 – the youngest of the nine Shinawatra siblings – in Chiang Mai.
The mother-of-one studied public administration at university and has a masters degree from U.S. college Kentucky State University.
She worked in sales and business, until she was elected leader of the Pheu Thai Party in 2011. The party was founded in 2008 by her brother, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who by then was living in exile.
First lady: Yingluck Shinawatra, now 50, became Thailand’s youngest ever – and first ever female – Prime Minister in 2011
That same year, she was elected Thailand’s first female Prime Minister, a role she held for three years until the military ousted her government in a coup.
This was the second time a Shinawatra had been removed from power by the military.
Thaksin, now 68, began his career as a police officer before switching to business in the 1980s and making billions as a telecoms tycoon.
He turned to politics and swept to victory in 2001, dramatically building his own strong political network and riling the conservative establishment, and every Thai general election since has been won by Shinawatra parties.
With his pro-poor policies he won a landslide again in 2005, making him the only Thai prime minister to have seen out a whole term and be re-elected.
The Shinawatras rolled out policies such as universal healthcare, debt relief, loans for start-up business and big rice subsidies for farmers, the latter is the policy which has ended up with Yingluck in court this week.
Billionaire patriarch Thaksin Shinawatra was toppled in a 2006 coup
But military ousted Thaksin in 2006.
Currently in charge, the military junta say they are simply restoring order after years of protests and deadly political violence.
Meanwhile, Shinawatra supporters say Bangkok’s conservative elite, including forces within the palace, have acted simply to protect their monopoly on power.
The Shinawatra family were accused of corruption and enriching themselves and their allies while buttressing their vote banks with costly populist policies.
Thaksin has had $1.3 billion in assets seized while Yingluck faces a damages claim worth $1 billion.
Thaksin is also criticised for an authoritarian streak, evidenced by a deadly drug war that saw around 3,000 shot dead.
The family still command a huge and loyal following, but barring an unexpected amnesty – or even a royal pardon – Thaksin is unlikely to set foot on Thai soil again and Yingluck’s future is now more uncertain than ever.
‘This is the end of the Shinawatra clan because it means they have given up,’ prominent Thai commentator Atukkit Sawangsuk, who regularly features on the Shinawatra-owned Voice TV, wrote on his Facebook page on Friday.
‘Even though (their) party exists and they still have support from the people, the whole clan has to step away and cannot play a leading role.’