Thailand’s former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra may have fled the country after failing to appear in court to hear the verdict in her long-running trial, according to the junta that ousted her in a coup in 2014 and reports in local media.
Thousands of Yingluck’s supporters had massed outside the country’s supreme court on Friday morning to witness the outcome of the trial over allegations of failing to prevent alleged corruption.
However, the 50-year-old did not turn up. Her lawyer told the judge that his client was suffering from an issue with fluid in her ear and was unable to attend.
The judge ruled the court would issue an arrest warrant and seize her bail bond.
“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 27 September,” a statement from a supreme court judge said. “She asked for sick leave not to show up today.”
A spokeswoman for Yingluck declined to comment. However, her lawyer said he was not sure if she was still in the country.
The deputy prime minister, Prawit Wongsuwan, said “it is possible” that she had fled Thailand.
Yingluck’s billionaire brother and former telecommunications tycoon, Thaksin, was also toppled in a 2006 coup and has lived in self-exile to avoid a 2008 conviction for graft that he said was politically motivated.
“I just learned that (Yingluck) did not show up,” the head of the junta, Prayuth Chan-ocha, told reporters. “I have ordered border checkpoints to be stepped up,” he said, including local and major routes out of the country.
Local media reported that Yingluck left the country on Thursday for Singapore where Thaksin was living. Two sources close to Yingluck, including a member of her political party, confirmed she was outside Thailand, according to Reuters news agency, although they did not say where.
The Guardian could not immediately verify the reports.
There were fears that a guilty verdict for charges of negligence in a controversial rice subsidies scheme would lead to confrontations between Yingluck supporters and the police. Yingluck faced up to 10 years in prison if convicted and a life ban from politics under the new military-drafted constitution.
The government had ordered more than 4,000 police and army officers to surround the court and warned against demonstrations.
After the court adjourned, there was confusion in the crowd of Yingluck supporters outside who had expected to see the political icon appear.
“What?” said a 75-year-0ld woman when told the court considered Yingluck to be a fugitive. “She won’t flee because she fights hard. She’s a working woman and a strong woman.”
The woman, who came from the poorer north-eastern rural province of Isaan that is Shinawatra’s support base, asked not to give her name as police were nearby.
Officers then asked the supporters to go home, saying they violated a junta-imposed law banning political gatherings of more than five people.
In a Facebook post on Thursday, Yingluck had asked her followers to stay home, fearing people with “ill-intentions” might cause trouble against them. “I want all of you to give me support by staying home and monitoring the news to avoid any risk of an unexpected incident by people with ill-intention against the country and us,” she said.
The Shinawatra family is a hugely influential political dynasty that is loved by many of Thailand’s rural poor but hated by many of the royalist and military elite in Bangkok.
The junta has tried to quash all dissent, outlawing political gatherings and locking up critics and opposition politicians. The Shinawatra party, Puea Thai, has won every election since 2001.
A rice subsidy scheme, which paid farmers nearly twice the market rate for their crop, was seen by Yingluck’s foes as handing billions of dollars to her voter base as well as unsold mountains of rotten rice. Losses amounted to more than £6bn, according to the government.
Anger against the policy led to street protests in 2013-14 that eventually overthrew Yingluck’s government. The former leader, whose family is on one side of a decade-old struggle, has said she is the victim of “a subtle political game”.
A military-backed legislature found Yingluck guilty in a separate impeachment case in 2015, and banned her from politics for five years.
Police had set up barricades and a checkpoint outside the supreme court and the prime minister has said the administration wanted to avoid trouble.
“The government is worried about the people. We don’t want to use force,” Prayuth told reporters.
AFP and Reuters contributed to this report
