Police set up team to hunt Yingluck after ‘easy’ escape

[webfact]

Police set up team to hunt Yingluck after ‘easy’ escape

By THE NATION

 

Yingluck Shinawatra

 

Interpol to assist as anti-corruption activist accuses authorities of negligence.

 

BANGKOK: -- AMID a flurry of blame, accusations and speculation, authorities remain unable to explain how former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra was so easily able to escape justice.

 

Anti-corruption activist Srisuwan Junya yesterday lodged a petition with the National Anti-Corruption Commission, asking it to investigate the failure of top security officers to prevent Yingluck from fleeing the country.

 

 

Srisuwan focused on Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, who oversees security matters, and police chief Pol General Chakthip Chaijinda, accusing them of being negligent in their duties. 

 

Prawit, who is also Defence Minister, said the activist has the right to do so, but reiterated that the authorities had no way to prevent Yingluck from fleeing the country.

 

“How could the authorities know when and where she would flee? Who would know it?” Prawit said at the Defence Ministry, in response to a reporter who pointed out that the authorities had closely monitored Yingluck’s movements even when she went to temples to make merit. The former premier had always complained that security officials and spies followed her everywhere.

 

“Yingluck’s escape was unexpected because she earlier always insisted that she would not flee. And there were police in front of her house all the time,” Prawit said. 

 

The authorities still have no official explanation as to how Yingluck failed to show up at the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions last Friday. Her whereabouts since have been the subject of intense speculation by the media, activists and observers. 

 

The court has postponed the verdict delivery to late next month, and has issued an arrest warrant, but nobody has a clear answer as to whether she will return to Thailand. 

 

Police have set up a team to track her, and the relevant agencies have been closely following movements around border areas, including natural land borders. Officers had been instructed to report the results of the operation every five days, deputy national police chief Pol General Srivara Ransibrahmanakul said.

 

Police in Lat Phrao have been instructed to check all the surveillance cameras around Yingluck’s house as well as her other residences in Bangkok and her hometown of Chiang Mai, but they have failed to find her, Srivara said.

 

Speculation denied

 

According to Srivara, Yingluck was last seen in her Bangkok home at 2pm on Wednesday. Officers from Lat Phrao Police Station, who were responsible for supervising Yingluck’s residence, said other people in the house had confirmed that she no longer lived there. 

 

Royal Thai Police will now seek the cooperation of Interpol to alert police forces in 190 countries around the world about Yingluck’s current legal status. 

 

Media citing unnamed sources reported that she had fled via Cambodia and Singapore to Dubai to join her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, who has a home there. The government in Phnom Penh dismissed the report, and authorities in Dubai also said they know nothing about Yingluck’s whereabouts.

 

Pol Maj-General Apichart Suriboonya, head of the police foreign affairs division, said the police had contacted officials in Cambodia and the United Arab Emirates but had received no information. 

 

Apichart told reporters about normal procedures, saying that Interpol could take “quite some time”. If any member of Interpol located Yingluck, Thai police could seek an international arrest warrant to have her apprehended. However, it would be up to Interpol how the case was conducted. 

 

Like everybody else, Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday denied speculation that the National Council for Peace and Order deliberately let Yingluck slip out of the country, saying it was beyond his expectation that she would flee.

 

 

“I didn’t think it would happen. In the morning [of the verdict], I still thought that she would go to court, following the procedure. I respected her,” Prayut said. 

 

Bombarded with questions about the incident, Prayut said furiously: “Who would let her flee? How come, why did you think like this?”

 

Prayut said he had instructed security officers to find out how the former premier left the country. They would also look at flaws in the process in order to prevent it happening again.

 

Prayut, who is also the head of the junta, said it was difficult for the authorities to follow Yingluck |before the court had made its judgment because they respected her privacy. 

 

Officers had been criticised over their possible violation of human rights, Prayut noted, adding that that had made everything difficult.

 

Prayut said he didn’t want people to blame the security officers, saying that the media should tone down its criticism. It would be “insane” if officers intentionally let her flee, he said. 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/politics/30325149

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-08-29

[Thechook]

Total incompetence by Prayuth and his elite security personnel,  couldn't guard a dead fish.  Thousands monitoring and guarding a monk who walks straight past, troops deployed, roadblocks set up to monitor Yingluk and the little old lady strolls out.

[Samui Bodoh]

It is tempting to say that there must have been a deal made. And there might have been.

 

However, as the old adage says, the simplest answer is usually correct.

 

It is hard to discount sheer stupidity and incompetence.

 

 

[ezzra]

It is no secrete that for the right amount of money, almost any government,

army or police persons will turn they had and look the the other way,

and no matter who the're and how severe their crimes are,

so why are the authorities are surprise? i'm surprise at their bewilderment

that such fiasco had happen.... and if tomorrow another high profile person

will have to skip the country, it will happen all over again despite the brouhaha

of Yingluck....

[PatOngo]

If nothing else, she has confirmed that the PTB are a bunch of clowns.

I think there's still a chance she may be safely hiding at Wat Dhammakayo.

[harada]

Three top investigators appointed.

[Damrongsak]

There was a big sale at the Jacques Penné store in France, and she just couldn't help herself.

 

 

[Cadbury]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

"......saying it was beyond his expectation that she would flee".

So the PM believed she wouldn't flee and rather prefer to stay and accept the Prayut style of Thai rough justice and punishment. If Boonsong got 42 years Yingluck would have got 420 years if Prayut had anything to do with it; which he undoubtedly would.

[Thailand]

They really should just give it a rest. Everytime a comment comes from this bunch it just confirms what a load of clowns they are.

 

Max Sennet would never have made this movie, too far fetched to be believable.

[jerojero]

Ha ha ha! Horse, barn door, close it now?

[over it]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

“Yingluck’s escape was unexpected because she earlier always insisted that she would not flee".

 

She's a politician. You're a politician. You believed her shit? 

[thhMan]

I guess if they did investigate and find the people who helped Yingy flee, would be notified and then would flee themselves.

 

Slapping fines or moving people to other posts wont cut it.

Strip them of their finances and ship them to a cell, for a long long time.

[alfalfa19]

it must be embarassing to keep up this little clownshow. 

[silent]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

It would be “insane” if officers intentionally let her flee, he said. 

 

With respect Mr. Prime Minister, not as insane as it is if they didn't intentionally let her flee.

[klauskunkel]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Royal Thai Police will now seek the cooperation of Interpol to alert police forces in 190 countries around the world about Yingluck’s current legal status. 

Ow man, gotta translate, again...

maybe they can use the Red Bull form, if they kept a copy.

Edited August 29, 2017 by klauskunkel

[YetAnother]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

“Yingluck’s escape was unexpected because she earlier always insisted that she would not flee. And there were police in front of her house all the time,” Prawit said. 

great example of political garbage speech:

1) the person in question was a politician; politicians are known for speaking 'alternative truths'

2) if police were there all the time, then what happened ? are they blind ?

[theoldgit]

Don't Thai people, travelling on a Thai Passport, need a visa for the UAE, they takes a day or two to process.

[yellowboat]

He doth protest too much. 

 

If the good general could dance, he could become a triple threat.  We all know he can sing and now know he can act. 

Edited August 29, 2017 by yellowboat

[Juan B Tong]

In this land where spirit houses abound, people believe in ghosts, and revere trees, the answer to where she went is obvious...

Edited August 29, 2017 by Juan B Tong

[darren84310]

4 hours ago, Thechook said:

Total incompetence by Prayuth and his elite security personnel,  couldn't guard a dead fish.  Thousands monitoring and guarding a monk who walks straight past, troops deployed, roadblocks set up to monitor Yingluk and the little old lady strolls out.

I think you're missing the point here..... They wanted it this way because they were scared of what might happen if they locked her up. I think it's pretty obvious really.

[mark01]

[edwinchester]

Can't wait for the upcoming movie of Yinglucks escape where she crawls through Bangkok sewers, a perilous minibus journey to the Cambodian border disguised as a Khmer labourer before the nailbiting climax through the minefield in nomansland.

[manhood]

Now it turns into total barnstormers !!!!!!!!!!!!

These people want to be the ELITE of this country??????????????

Shame on you: its a play like children in the sandbox!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tomwct]

I have a source in the media that saw Yingluck riding a camel in Dubai with a Burka on! This source has been reliable in the past, but wants to remain confidential!

[Jimbo2014]

[Raymonddiaz]

we can notice that 5 days after Yingluck " escape"  no search warrant for her house has been issued. I believe it's just politic.. Authorities are not even good at lying..... 

[edwinchester]

6 minutes ago, tomwct said:

I have a source in the media that saw Yingluck riding a camel in Dubai with a Burka on! This source has been reliable in the past, but wants to remain confidential!

A camel.....wearing a burka! Not really believable.

[joecoolfrog]

I bet somebody is musing along the following lines ;

" What is the world ( Thailand ) coming to , no respect for me after all I have done for my children.

In the good old days ( before the pesky internet and interfering foreigners ) us elders could say any old thing and it would never be questioned , but now nobody believes anything I say , its damn bad manners.

Im in danger of losing face here , cant have that , what to do , what to do , what to do......truth is obviously not a option ! "

[1duckyboy]

If the same team after the Red Bull heir, maybe their seeing-eye dogs can sniff her out. On the other hand, anyone involved in apprehending the Red Bull heir will never have to work another day in their life thanks to guess who. Dumb like foxes.

[MrJohnson]

Perfect outcome for the Junta.Yingluck can now be characterized as a coward who would not face justice and has abandoned her supporters. This, in contrast, to her being made a martyr by the courts and probably assisting to galvanize Phua Thai supporters if she had been incarcerated, which she most certainly would had she been found guilty.  Now they have both Thaksin and Yingluck permanently gone. That's pretty much the end of the Shinawatra dynasty. I would imagine the boys in green would be quite happy with that outcome.