Arrest warrant issued for former Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra over court no show, trial delayed to 27 September

[NanLaew]

7 minutes ago, tomas557 said:

 

I still don't understand why in Thailand, in contrary with almost every other country in the world, a verdict can not be made if the accused is absent.

 

Where I come from that would automatically mean the maximum penalty.

Because, like where you come from, that would have been a trial judges duty and responsibility. However, this being Thailand, this trial judge is NOT going to be the one that the junta blames for it (probably) all kicking off if he followed the letter of the law. He has simply sidestepped any (immediate) legal obligation to levy the maximum penalty in lieu of orders already in place.

[JonnyF]

36 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

She wasn't pm at the time of the coup. 

Factually correct, but pedantic. The reason she wasn't PM by that time was because she had already been hounded out. 

 

Either way, Thailand's image is tarnished again by this mess - which as we both know was the point I was making.

 

PS before you attack a straw man, let me say I am not a fan of Yingluck or the Red Shirts.

 

 

 

Edited August 25, 2017 by JonnyF

[CaptHaddock]

I am glad that she appears to have got away. 

1 minute ago, NCC1701A said:

11:45am

 

Sources close to Yingluck say she left the country for Singapore where her brother Thaksin Shinawatra is presently.

Good for her, but the junta will be satisfied since they have wanted to chase her out of the country all along.

[LannaGuy]

2 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

11:45am

 

Sources close to Yingluck say she left the country for Singapore where her brother Thaksin Shinawatra is presently.

Hope so.

[sanuk711]

7 minutes ago, Father Fintan Stack said:

This is an ideal situation for both parties.

It's exactly what they did with Thaksin.

Yes--I think even He would like to have the chance to redo that move again-- just a short time in Prison... In what his lawyers say were quite good conditions, (as he left everyone of them to do jail Time) then he could have been walking around saying whatever he wanted to say. He had already been banned from running for office again at that point---so the record wouldn't have mattered.

[Bluespunk]

I'm not so sure that hearing something you don't want to hear, no matter how painful, qualifies as ear ache. 

[Bluespunk]

14 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

Factually correct, but pedantic. The reason she wasn't PM by that time was because she had already been hounded out. 

 

Either way, Thailand's image is tarnished again by this mess - which as we both know was the point I was making.

 

PS before you attack a straw man, let me say I am not a fan of Yingluck or the Red Shirts.

 

 

 

She quit before the coup and was replaced by another pt politician.

 

You call it pedantic, I call it getting the facts right. 

 

No fan myself and nothing she is doing now is making her better in my mind. 

 

PS: Neither am I fan of suthep and the yellow shirted, facist PAD that preceded him. 

Edited August 25, 2017 by Bluespunk

[CNXBKKMAN]

5 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

...versus fronting a rival party in Thailand with a Thai passport but the military's hand up the back of your kilt?

 

 

Yes... yes it is.

 

 

He dodged a jail sentence thats winning but he lost his homeland, thai life, his thai business life and gained a luxury apartment in Dubai and shopping in the Mall of the Emirates, thats losing. 

       I would even guess he misses the thai weather and seasons. No more golf on a crisp morning in Chiang Mai during the cool season. No banter with his hiso business mates after the game.

[Krataiboy]

Maybe she's having one of those "difficult days".

[baboon]

5 minutes ago, gk10002000 said:

So there is an arrest warrant.  What does that mean in Thailand?  In most countries, when there is an arrest warrant, you go and ARREST the person!  The officials have supposedly been following here very closely for a long time.  So why not go get her?    Probably because it is better for the junta if She is quietly somehow let out of the country.  The current PM could then ride things out for several years

Yes, but if that is indeed the case, the junta would become a national laughingstock which they would NOT like. The only authority they would have left would be brute force.

[Ocicat]

When does the statute of limitations run out on her charges?

[NCC1701A]

the word on the street is she left yesterday.

 

 

[gk10002000]

1 minute ago, baboon said:

Yes, but if that is indeed the case, the junta would become a national laughingstock which they would NOT like. The only authority they would have left would be brute force.

I understand.  So back to my original question:  What the heck does the arrest warrant mean?  Go and arrest her?  Just posture and gamesmanship hoping she will turn herself without all the publicity and fan fare of the police and military going to her house and physically grabbing her?  What a joke.  I enjoy visiting the country and plan to spend a lot of time there in the very near future as I semi-retire, but I am so glad I didn't invest in anything.  Nothing good would have come of it.

[hathairat2711]

Jonathan Head‏ @pakhead  11m11 minutes ago

More

Anyone at home? Yingluck Shinawatra's house, Bangkok after she failed to appear in court. Apparently she has vertigo

[kjun12]

I wish Ms. Yingluck the best and I hope that she has made a successful getaway from the general and the dishonest court system.

[mark01]

I can confirm that she was with me last night and is totally knackered today.

So we're having a duvet day.

[sanuk711]

5 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

the word on the street is she left yesterday.

Is that Walking Street...............

[baboon]

3 minutes ago, hathairat2711 said:

Jonathan Head‏ @pakhead  11m11 minutes ago

More

Anyone at home? Yingluck Shinawatra's house, Bangkok after she failed to appear in court. Apparently she has vertigo

Nice little place she's got...

[sanuk711]

1 minute ago, baboon said:

Nice little place she's got..

Yes...I love the 10ft high walls with spikes on the top......Just as well she is loved by all the people.

[baboon]

6 minutes ago, gk10002000 said:

I understand.  So back to my original question:  What the heck does the arrest warrant mean?  Go and arrest her?  Just posture and gamesmanship hoping she will turn herself without all the publicity and fan fare of the police and military going to her house and physically grabbing her?  What a joke.  I enjoy visiting the country and plan to spend a lot of time there in the very near future as I semi-retire, but I am so glad I didn't invest in anything.  Nothing good would have come of it.

In this case, the arrest warrant might be a displacement activity while the junta try and figure out what the hell to do next and how to spin this shambles in even a semi-convincing way...

[webfact]

Thai junta seeks Yingluck's arrest as former PM skips court verdict

By Aukkarapon Niyomyat and Panarat Thepgumpanat

 

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

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's Supreme Court accused ousted prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra of fleeing or going into hiding on Friday after she failed to show up for the verdict in a negligence trial brought by the ruling junta.

 

Yingluck, 50, whose family has dominated Thai politics for more than 15 years, faces up to 10 years in prison if found guilty in a case centred on the multi-billion dollar losses incurred by a rice subsidy scheme for farmers.

 

The court set a new date of Sept. 27 for the verdict, and said it would seek an arrest warrant for Yingluck as it did not believe her excuse that she could not attend the court hearing because of an ear problem.

 

"We think that the defendant is hiding or has fled," a statement from a Supreme Court judge said. "She asked for sick leave not to show up today."

 

Yingluck's lawyer, Norrawit Lalaeng, said her team had told him on Friday morning she had an "ear fluid imbalance" and could not attend court. He said he was unaware whether she was still in the country.

 

Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said he could not confirm whether Yingluck was still in Thailand.

 

"She could be at any hospital ... she could be ill. It's not clear whether she has fled," he told reporters. "Yingluck has many homes and many cars. It is difficult to track her."

 

The head of immigration police, Nanthathorn Prousoontorn, told Reuters he believed she was still in the country and would be arrested when she was found.

 

A spokeswoman for Yingluck declined to comment.

 

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 the security measures. The doors of her home were shut and local media said there had been no movement there since the early morning.

 

BROTHER FLED AFTER COUP

 

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

 

That movement, pitted against a Bangkok-centered royalist and pro-military elite, has been at the heart of years of turmoil.

 

The verdict against Yingluck is widely seen as having the potential to reignite tensions, though the junta has largely snuffed out open opposition.

 

Hundreds of Yingluck supporters had gathered outside the court on Friday where around 4,000 police had been deployed and checkpoints had been set up. The trial has taken around two years and Yingluck has shown up for previous hearings.

 

Under the rice subsidy programme, Yingluck's administration paid farmers up to 50 percent more than market prices for their rice. The policy was popular with farmers but 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 the scheme. Her administration was removed in a 2014 military coup.

 

In the northeastern province Khon Kaen, a Shinawatra stronghold, a leader of the red shirt political movement that supports Yingluck said her supporters felt frustrated. Some had been preparing for protests against the verdict.

 

Shinawatra's Puea Thai Party has said it does not support acts of violence. Some supporters outside the court in Bangkok held roses while others wore white gloves with the word "love" on them.

 

The court is due to rule in the separate case on Friday of Yingluck's former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom who is accused of falsifying government-to-government rice deals between Thailand and China in 2013.

 

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who led the 2014 coup against Yingluck's government in the name of ending political turmoil, has promised that an election will be held next year.

 

Regardless of whether she is found guilty or innocent, Yingluck will not be able to run in that election because she was banned from politics for five years in 2015 by the junta's legislature for alleged graft in the rice-purchasing programme.

 

If Yingluck is found guilty she has 30 days to appeal and is expected to post bail, avoiding any immediate prison time.

 

(Additional reporting by Amy Sawitta Lefevre, Donna Airoldi, Jorge Silva, Juarawee Kittisilpa, Panarat Thepgumpant, Panu Wongcha-um, Pracha Hariraksapitak and Suphanida Thakral; Writing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre; Editing by Matthew Tostevin & Simon Cameron-Moore)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-08-25

[Wilsonandson]

20 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

11:45am

 

Sources close to Yingluck say she left the country for Singapore where her brother Thaksin Shinawatra is presently.

The Bangkok Biz News has reported this

 

Buzz !! "Yingluck" a private plane to Singapore.

It is reported that after Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra, former Prime Minister Traveling to make merit to pay respect to the elderly at Wat Rakang Bangkok on 23 Aug ago. Then on 24 August, Yingluck has boarded a private plane to Singapore, while also information that former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.Traveled to Singapore as well.

[JAG]

Correct me Im wrong, but havent the junta frozen her assets. 
 
She goes, they keep her money. Deal!!

Well that rather supposes they can get their sticky paws on it (other than a token amount of course).

[inThailand]

Well 50% of the verdict is in...guilty.

But they must still be negotiating the sentence and fine, so no arrest until this is agreeded upon or until they are at an impasse. 

[Crash999]

Seems like this was planned in advance. No doubt her money will have long since been transferred out of the country so she can live a life of luxury with her brother. 

 

Revocation of his passport hasn't stopped him traveling to the US and Canada recently. 

[ChiangMaiLightning2143]

Meniere disease? I thought that was a recipe for Filet of Sole.


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[harada]

• If it's a toss up between catching the freedom bird in the wee hours or contracting a rare blood disorder whilst incarcerated I'll go the freedom bird.

[petermik]

7 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

the word on the street is she left yesterday.

 

 

 

 

7 hours ago, sanuk711 said:

Is that Walking Street...............

No....Sesame street

[Dave67]

Edited August 25, 2017 by Dave67

[Crash999]

21 minutes ago, CNXBKKMAN said:

He dodged a jail sentence thats winning but he lost his homeland, thai life, his thai business life and gained a luxury apartment in Dubai and shopping in the Mall of the Emirates, thats losing. 

       I would even guess he misses the thai weather and seasons. No more golf on a crisp morning in Chiang Mai during the cool season. No banter with his hiso business mates after the game.

Dubai is old news. When Yingluck took power his frozen assets were released and he obtained other citizenship. 

 

Now he travels the world and has multiple residences. He was recently vacationing in Canada and the US.