Yingluck Shinawatra flees Thailand before verdict that could land her in jail
Bangkok — Former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra may have fled Thailand before a scheduled court verdict on Friday that could have led to her imprisonment, according to Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan. "There may be a possibility that Yingluck already escaped out of the country because there are several paths for her to leave," Prawit told reporters in Bangkok. "But I would like to assure you that the government has no knowledge or intention to let her escape." A Thai court issued an arrest warrant for Yingluck after she failed to show up on Friday to hear a verdict in a negligence case. Prawit said he heard a rumour that she may have fled across the border to neighbouring Cambodia, while newspaper reports said she may have later gone to Singapore or Dubai. The verdict threatened to reopen fissures in Thai society that have triggered violent clashes over the past decade between urban royalists and rural backers of exiled former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, Yingluck’s brother...
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