Thailand's Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant for former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, the court said in a statement on Friday.

BANGKOK: Thailand's Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant for former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, the court said in a statement on Friday.

The country's deputy prime minister said earlier that it was possible Yingluck, who was ousted by a military coup in 2014, has fled the country. Thailand's immigration police chief said he had no information to suggest she has left Thailand through the country's border checkpoints.

Yingluck faces up to 10 years in prison if found guilty in a negligence case brought by the ruling junta that centers on her role in a rice subsidy scheme for farmers that resulted in multi-billion dollar losses.</s>BANGKOK (AFP) - Thailand's junta chief on Friday (Aug 25) ordered border checkpoints to be beefed up after ex-prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra failed to turn up at a court date that could have seen her jailed, sparking rumours that she has fled the country.

"I just learnt that she did not show up (at court)," Prayut Chan-o-Cha told reporters.

"I have ordered border checkpoints to be stepped up," he said, including local and major routes out of the country.</s>Image copyright Reuters Image caption Ms Yingluck is the sister of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, who fled Thailand in 2008

Former Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra has fled abroad, sources say, ahead of a verdict in her trial over a rice subsidy scheme.

Sources in her party say she made the decision to leave unexpectedly, shortly before she was due to appear at the Supreme Court on negligence charges.

Her lawyers told the court she had been unable to attend because she was ill.

But when she failed to appear, the court issued an arrest warrant for her and confiscated her bail.

Judges also postponed the verdict until 27 September.

Ms Yingluck has denied any wrongdoing in the scheme which cost Thailand billions of dollars. If found guilty at the end of her two-year trial, she could be jailed for up to 10 years and permanently banned from politics.

Sources within Ms Yingluck's Puea Thai Party told Reuters that she had "definitely left Thailand" but did not give details of her whereabouts.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who heads Thailand's military government, said all routes out of the country were being closely monitored.

"I just learned that she did not show up [at court]," he told reporters. "I have ordered border checkpoints to be stepped up."

Deputy PM Prawit Wongsuwan initially said he had no information on Ms Yingluck's whereabouts but as he left a meeting in Bangkok he said: "It is possible that she has fled already."

How could Yingluck Shinawatra have left?

Analysis by Jonathan Head, BBC News, Bangkok

Yingluck Shinawatra was the most high-profile criminal defendant in Thailand and was constantly monitored by the military authorities. So how was she able to leave the country just hours before the verdict was due to be read out? Immigration authorities say they have no record of her leaving the country.

However, it is a poorly-concealed secret that some in the military government would have been happy to see her leave the country before the verdict.

Had she been convicted and jailed, she could have been seen as a victim by her supporters. The government was nervous about their reaction. Acquitting her, though, would have been equally unacceptable to her hard-line opponents, many of them very influential.

That would also have undermined the justification for the military coup which overthrew her government. So it is unlikely anyone tried to stop her leaving, or that they will try to get her back.

She could have gone to the VIP area of one of Bangkok's airports and taken a private jet out of the country or she might have driven across the border into Cambodia or Laos.

However she is most likely to have joined her brother, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who has been living mainly in Dubai since he went into exile, fleeing a Supreme Court verdict, in 2008.

What happened in court?

Ms Yingluck's lawyer had requested a delay in the ruling, telling the Supreme Court that she had vertigo and a severe headache and was unable to attend.

But the court said in a statement it did not believe she was sick as there was no medical certificate and that the claimed sickness was not severe enough to prevent her travelling to court.

"Such behaviour convincingly shows that she is a flight risk. As a result, the court has issued an arrest warrant and confiscated the posted bail money," the statement said.

Ms Yingluck posted $900,000 (£703,000) bail at the beginning of her trial.

Image caption Journalists waited outside Ms Yingluck's home in Bangkok, expecting her to attend the court

Friday's turn of events took many by surprise, including the hundreds of people who turned up outside the Supreme Court in Bangkok to support Ms Yingluck.

BBC Thai reporter Nanchanok Wongsamuth said the announcement prompted shocked reactions in the courtroom, and then a flurry of activity as journalists ran out to report the news.

What is the trial about?

Ms Yingluck, who became Thailand's first female prime minister in 2011, was impeached in 2015 over the rice scheme by a military-backed legislature, which then brought the legal case.

The scheme, part of Ms Yingluck's election campaign platform, launched shortly after she took office.

It was aimed at boosting farmers' incomes and alleviating rural poverty, and saw the government paying farmers nearly twice the market rate for their crop.

But it hit Thailand's rice exports hard, leading to a loss of at least $8bn and huge stockpiles of rice which the government could not sell.

Though it was popular with her rural voter base, opponents said the scheme was too expensive and open to corruption.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Hundreds of Ms Yingluck's supporters had gathered outside the court

During her trial, Ms Yingluck had argued she was not responsible for the day-to-day running of the scheme. She has insisted she is a victim of political persecution.

In another development on Friday, former Thai minister Boonsong Teriyapirom was jailed for 42 years in connection with the rice subsidy scheme.

The BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok says the exceptionally heavy sentence for Mr Boonsong suggests the court would not have been lenient with Ms Yingluck and it is possible she was warned about this before making her decision to flee.

How popular is Yingluck Shinawatra?

Ms Yingluck's time in office was overshadowed by controversy as well as strong political opposition.

The youngest sister of Mr Thaksin, she was seen by her opponents as a proxy for her brother, who was controversially ousted by the military in 2006.

Both siblings remain popular among the rural poor, but are hated by an urban and middle-class elite.

Their Puea Thai party has - under various different names - won every election in Thailand since 2001.

Some of Ms Yingluck's supporters outside the court on Friday expressed understanding at her failure to show.

"The Thai prime minister has done her best, she has sacrificed a lot," said Seksan Chalitaporn, 64. "Now the people have to fight for themselves."

Telecommunications billionaire Mr Thaksin, who once owned Manchester City FC, has lived in self-imposed exile since leaving Thailand. It is believed he travels between homes in London, Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Timeline of Yingluck's rice scheme controversy

May 2011- Yingluck Shinawatra is elected PM, and shortly afterwards begins rolling out her rice subsidy scheme.

January 2014 - Thailand's anti-corruption authorities investigate Ms Yingluck in connection to the scheme.

May 2014 - She is forced to step down from her post after Thailand's constitutional court finds her guilty of abuse of power in another case. Weeks later the military ousts what remains of her government.

January 2015 - An army-backed legislature impeaches Ms Yingluck for corruption over her role in the rice scheme, which effectively bans her from politics for five years. It also launches legal proceedings against her.

August 2017 - Ms Yingluck fails to appear at court for the verdict, claiming ill health.</s>The Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions today issued warrant for the arrest of ex-premier Yingluck Shinawatra after she failed to appear in the court to hear her judgement on the rice pledging scheme.

She failed to arrive to hear the verdict which the court scheduled to announce at 9.00 am. But until 10.00am she still didn’t arrive, prompting the court to schedule September 27 as the day to announce the verdict.

At the same time the court also issued warrant to arrest her.</s>Supporters of Yingluck Shinawatra mock army officers travelling in a truck past the Supreme Court after the former PM failed to show up to hear a verdict in Bangkok. Credit:AP The ruling date has been rescheduled to September 27. Thai media reported the court has seized the equivalent of $1.1 million that Ms Yingluck had posted as bail. "It is possible that she has fled already," Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan​ told reporters as he left a meeting in Bangkok. He had earlier said only that he had no confirmation of her whereabouts.

The arrest of Ms Yingluck, 50, would stoke anger among her Red Shirt supporters who see the charges against her as a witch-hunt. Police officers deploy outside the Thai Supreme Court ahead of ascheduled verdict on charges accusing former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra of negligence in implementing a rice subsidy. Credit:AP Thousands of supporters defied a government ban on gatherings of more than five people and threats of legal action to converge on the court. Many were from her rural heartland in the country's north and north-eastern provinces. "Yingluck, fight, fight fight," many shouted. Thai police ride past supporters of former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra sleeping outside the Supreme Court ahead of Friday's scheduled verdict. Credit:AP

Ms Yingluck had told her supporters on the eve of the hearing to stay home, fearing people with "ill-intentions" might and try and cause trouble for her movement. "I want all of you to give me support by staying at home and monitoring the news to avoid any risk of unexpected incident by people with ill-intention against the country and us," she wrote on Facebook. A supporter of of Yingluck Shinawatra waves outside the court on Friday morning. Credit:AP The military government put its credibility on the line by pursuing the first charges against a former prime minister over a flawed government policy. The generals who toppled Ms Yingluck's democratically-elected government in 2014 knew they risked her becoming a heroine in the eyes of millions of Thais if she was found guilty and jailed.

Yingluck Shinawatra thanks supporters as she arrives at the Supreme Court for her final statements on August 1. She didn't attend the hearing on Friday. Credit:AP No corruption allegations were made against her in the case. Prosecutors alleged Ms Yingluck's government ignored numerous written warnings from the Auditor-General and the country's anti-corruption commission about the program's risks and irregularities. A police officer frisks a supporter of of Yingluck Shinawatra outside court on Friday morning. Credit:AP Ms Yingluck told the court she did not terminate the program because it was never intended to generate revenue but to raise the incomes of farmers, and she forwarded the warnings to the relevant government agencies.

A subsequent investigation found no irregularities, she said. Even before Friday's scheduled verdict authorities had hit Ms Yungluck with a $US1 billion ($1.2 billion) fine over the program and seized her 16 bank accounts, which prompted a public outcry. Other former governments have implemented similar subsidy schemes but the one Ms Yingluck promised during an election campaign in 2011 spectacularly collapsed with losses to the state of up to $17 billion. The plan was to buy up local rice harvests for as much as 50 per cent above market rates to drive up global prices. But the market saw it as a clumsy attempt at price manipulation. Thailand amassed huge rotting stockpiles of rice rather than sell at a loss overseas.

The case is the latest in a decade-long offensive against a largely rural-based mass movement supporting a political machine founded and directed by Ms Yingluck's elder brother, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled in a 2006 military coup. Mr Thaksin, a telecommunications tycoon, fled into exile in 2008 to escape a prison sentence on a conflict of interest charge he claims was politically motivated. Critics had predicted that Ms Yingluck too would flee overseas before Friday but she appeared calm in the days leading to the verdict, making merit at Buddhist temples. Reporters camped outside her residence in Bangkok said she had not been seen since Wednesday. The online news site Khaosod English quoted a source close to Ms Yingluck saying she had left the country for Singapore on Thursday. It said she travelled overland to Cambodia with her 15-year-old son and then few to Dubai, the base of her elder exiled brother Thaksin Shinawatra. The claims could not be verified. Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, said it was clear enough that politics was involved in the trial.

"I mean, this is a government that was elected in 2011 by a simple majority and it had a policy platform led by the rice pledging scheme," he said. "The scheme led to losses probably, but on the other hand, if we use this benchmark for other governments, then we could have a lot of government leaders in jail." Professor Thitinan said the only way for Thailand to break a vicious cycle of coups, changing constitutions and elections is for retooled charter rules and laws to be determined by electors. "Otherwise the recent past of protests, confrontation and turmoil will return to haunt and keep Thailand stuck," he said. The Bangkok Post said in an editorial the case reveals how Thailand's justice system is prone to be dragged into political turmoil.

"The case against Ms Yingluck, prosecuted under the ruling regime which ousted her, is highly political," the newspaper said. Since the 2014 coup, Thailand has become one of south-east Asia's most repressive countries with political gatherings banned, strict censorship of the media and hundreds of activists, journalists, academics and former politicians detained or charged. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who led the coup, urged Thais to accept the court's ruling. "Please keep this like any other. Generally those who are guilty must be tried in courts," he told reporters. Mr Prayuth has promised to allow a return to democracy but has repeatedly delayed setting a date.

Loading "In the next period, democratic mechanisms must take over. I confirm no attempts will be made to stay in power," he said. "If I want to enter politics, I must turn into a politician."</s>BANGKOK (Reuters) - Ousted Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra has fled the country ahead of a verdict against her in a negligence trial brought by the junta that overthrew her, sources close to the Shinawatra family said on Friday.

Yingluck, 50, whose family has dominated Thai politics for more than 15 years, failed to show up at court for judgment in a case centered on the multi-billion dollar losses incurred by a rice subsidy scheme for farmers.

Overthrown in 2014, Yingluck had faced up to 10 years in prison if found guilty. Her former commerce minister was jailed in a related case for 42 years on Friday.

“She has definitely left Thailand,” said one source, who is also a member of her Puea Thai Party. The sources did not say where she had gone.

Yingluck’s brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, who heads the political clan, was overthrown in a 2006 coup and fled into exile to escape a corruption conviction that he said was aimed at demolishing the populist movement he founded.

The struggle between that movement and a Bangkok-centered royalist and pro-military elite has been at the heart of years of turmoil in Thailand. The verdict against Yingluck could have reignited tension, though the army has largely snuffed out open opposition.

ARREST WARRANT

After Yingluck failed to show up, the Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant against her and rescheduled the verdict to Sept. 27. It said it did not believe her excuse that she could not attend the court hearing because of an ear problem.

“It is possible that she has fled already,” Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan told reporters. He later said police were investigating reports that she had left via Koh Chang, an island close to the Cambodian border.

Cambodian immigration police said she had not entered their country.

Yingluck last commented on social media on Thursday, saying on her Facebook page that she would not be able to meet supporters at court because of tight security.

She had been banned from traveling abroad at the beginning of the trial in 2015 and has attended previous hearings. The court confiscated the 30 million baht ($900,000) that Yingluck had posted as bail.

Supporters of ousted former Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra wait for her at the Supreme Court in Bangkok, Thailand, August 25, 2017. REUTERS/Jorge Silva

Hundreds of her supporters had gathered outside the court on Friday where about 4,000 police had been deployed. Some held roses while others wore white gloves with the word “love” on them.

Although Yingluck had already been banned from politics by the junta in 2015, she could have been a party figurehead for elections that junta leader Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has promised for next year.

If Yingluck has fled it would disappoint her supporters and make her opponents feel vindicated, said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University.

“It does not help with Thailand’s division and polarization,” he said.

Under the rice subsidy program, Yingluck’s administration paid rice farmers up to 50 percent more than market prices. It left Thailand with huge rice stockpiles and caused $8 billion in losses.

Yingluck has said she was only in charge of coming up with the policy but not the day-to-day management of it.

“If she has fled people would not trust her, but the masses would still support her because they benefited from her policies,” 38-year-old delivery man Sakunchai Muenlamai.

Slideshow (5 Images)

The Supreme Court sentenced Yingluck’s former commerce minister, Boonsong Teriyapirom, to 42 years in jail after finding him guilty of falsifying government-to-government rice deals between Thailand and China in 2013.

He said he would appeal, but was told it was too late in the day to apply for bail so will spend the weekend behind bars.</s>The Supreme Court of Thailand on Friday issued an arrest warrant against former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra after she failed to appear in court for the verdict in a negligence case, reported Reuters. The judge said he suspected that Shinawatra, who was ousted by a military coup in 2014, had either fled the country or gone into hiding.

Although her lawyers said she could not attend the hearing because she was ill, the bench said it did not believe her excuse. “We don’t think that the defendant is ill,” the court said. “We think the defendant is hiding or has fled.”

The top court will pronounce the verdict on September 27.

Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan also said it was possible Shinawatra had already fled the country, reported BBC. However, her lawyer Norwait Lalaeng claimed he was unaware whether the former prime minister was still in Thailand.

Shinawatra faces up to 10 years in prison if found guilty in a rice subsidy scheme case. If convicted, she will have 30 days to appeal against the verdict.

The subsidy scheme, which was a flagship policy of Shinawatra’s administration, was a hit among farmers, but it had incurred losses worth $8 billion (around Rs 51,040 crore). The former prime minister had argued that she was only in charge of coming up with the policy and not its day-to-day management.</s>More than a thousand of Ms. Yingluck’s supporters gathered in the capital hours before Friday’s hearing, but the police blocked roadways and set up barricades to prevent the crowd from getting close to the courthouse. The supporters showed up even though she had advised them not to do so.

Ms. Yingluck’s lawyer told 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 that as an excuse because Ms. 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 30 million baht, about $900,000.

Unlike her brother, who fled the country and was convicted in absentia on corruption charges, Ms. Yingluck remained in Thailand and fought the charges against her.

Nathathorn Prousoontorn, a police lieutenant general who heads the Immigration Bureau, said that there was no record of her leaving the country since 2014. In May 2015, the court ordered her not to leave Thailand without permission.

There was widespread speculation in the Thai news media and on social media that Ms. 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.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan told reporters that they had no idea where she was.

“She might be really sick. We don’t know,” Mr. Prawit said. “Maybe she is in some hospital. She is a former prime minister and some officials might have helped her if she is running away. I don’t know if she has left the country or not.”</s>BANGKOK, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Thailand's Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant for former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, the court said in a statement on Friday.

The country's deputy prime minister said earlier that it was possible Yingluck, who was ousted by a military coup in 2014, has fled the country. Thailand's immigration police chief said he had no information to suggest she has left Thailand through the country's border checkpoints.

Yingluck faces up to 10 years in prison if found guilty in a negligience case brought by the ruling junta that centers on her role in a rice subsidy scheme for farmers that resulted in multi-billion dollar losses. (Reporting by Amy Sawitta Lefevre, Pracha Hariraksapitak and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)</s>Thai policemen walk in formation outside the Supreme Court in Bangkok on August 25, 2017. — AFP pic BANGKOK, Aug 25 — Thailand’s junta chief this morning ordered border checkpoints to be beefed-up after ex-prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra failed to turn up at a court date that could have seen her jailed, sparking rumours she has fled the country.

“I just learned that she did not show up (at court),” Prayut Chan-ocha told reporters.

“I have ordered border checkpoints to be stepped up,” he said, including local and major routes out of the country. — AFP
Thailand's Supreme Court issues an arrest warrant for former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who didn't appear in court for the verdict in her negligence trial regarding a rice subsidy program for farmers. The court also issued a statement questioning her attorney's report that she is unwell and a potential flight risk, citing the lack of a physician's certificate. The reading of the verdict has been rescheduled to September 27. Sources within Shinawatra's party Pheu Thai Party have said that she has allegedly fled the country, though not saying where to, in response current prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has ordered the border checkpoints to be closely monitored to prevent Shinawatra leaving the country if she has not already.