Hundreds of supporters of ousted former Thai prime minister Yingluck began to gather outside Bangkok's Supreme Court early on Friday hours before the court was due to rule on a negligence case against her in which she faces up to 10 years in prison. Bangkok: Former Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra has fled abroad as the country`s Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant after she failed to appear on Friday for the verdict in a negligence case brought against her by the ruling junta, a media report said. "At 8 am Yingluck's team contacted me to say it had told the court she could not show up because of an ear fluid imbalance," Norawit Lalaeng, Yingluck's lawyer, told reporters. "We don't think that the defendant is ill. We think that the defendant is hiding or has fled ... We have pushed back the verdict date to September 27," a statement from a Supreme Court judge said. It postponed the verdict until Sept. 27 and announced that a warrant would be issued for Yingluck’s arrest. Thailand's former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has fled to Dubai, senior members of her party said on Saturday, a day after she failed to show up for a negligence ruling in which she faced up to 10 years in prison. The sister of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Yingluck was ousted by a coup in 2014 and was later impeached by Thailand`s military-appointed National Legislative Assembly. Yingluck and her supporters say she is innocent and being persecuted in an effort to dismantle the political machine of her brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled from power by a 2006 military coup after being accused of abuse of power, corruption and disrespect for the country’s monarchy.
Senior members of the Pheu Thai Party report former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra left Thailand last week ahead of the verdict in her negligence trial. She is in Dubai where her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, lives.