DHAKA: A Thai court said it would issue an arrest warrant for Yingluck Shinawatra, the former prime minister, after she failed to attend the reading of the verdict in a criminal case against her, reports NewYork Times.
Her failure to show up in court led to speculation that she might flee the country, or that she had already left. Her lawyer, Norawit Larlaeng, told reporters outside the courthouse that he learned of her illness only an hour before the hearing.
Asked if she was in Thailand, he replied, “I don’t know. That’s all I can say.”
Yingluck faces 10 years in prison on charges that she mismanaged a rice subsidy initiative while prime minister, costing the country $8 billion. A conviction would also prevent her from engaging in political activities.
Her failure to appear in court was the latest twist in the drama of a political family, which transformed Thai politics by capturing support of the rural poor with promises to raise living standards.
More than a thousand of Yingluck’s supporters gathered in the capital in the vicinity of the courthouse hours before Friday’s scheduled hearing, but the police blocked roadways and set up barricades to prevent the crowd from getting close. The supporters showed up even though she had told them days ago not to do so.
Yingluck notified the court that she was suffering from a fluid imbalance in her ear and nausea, but the court did not accept her excuse because she did not send a doctor’s certificate. It rescheduled the verdict for Sept. 27. The court also ordered her to forfeit her bail of 30 million baht, about $900,000.
The case centers on whether Yingluck mismanaged a subsidy program that led to a stockpile of rotting rice. Thailand, which has been ruled by a military junta since shortly after the ouster of Ms. Yingluck’s government, remains deeply divided.
Unlike her brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who fled the country and was convicted in absentia on corruption charges, Yingluck remained in Thailand and fought the charges against her.
Her absence from court prompted some supporters to speculate that, like her brother, she might also try to leave the country.
“I think there’s 50 percent chance that she will flee and there’s 50 percent chance that she might come to fight,” said Vittawat Suwanpuk, 70, a retired banker who came out to support her. “She has fought so hard for this. She won’t give up easily.”
Even if she is found not guilty in the rice subsidy case, she still faces possible criminal charges in several other cases of alleged financial irregularities and mismanagement.
Yingluck became prime minister in 2011. Although she was a political neophyte, Thailand’s first female prime minister proved popular, particularly in the country’s populous north and northeast, where her promises to enrich farmers through subsidies resonated.
BDST: 1320 HRS, AUG 25, 2017
SI
