BANGKOK (AP) – Facing a possible 10-year prison term, former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has reportedly fled the country ahead of a court verdict her supporters say is politically motivated.
Yingluck’s whereabouts are not immediately known Saturday, but local media have cited anonymous officials as saying she traveled by land to Cambodia then flew to Dubai to join her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra – another exiled former premier whose government was toppled in a military coup.
An official of Yingluck’s Pheu Thai party who is close to the Shinawatras told The Associated Press she is no longer in Thailand. The official gave no other details, and declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject.
Yingluck is accused of negligence in a money-losing rice subsidy program, a charge she denies.