Poyjairapee had filed the lawsuit against the chiefs of the departments of Foreign Trade and Legal Executions after they froze the couple’s assets, including her two bank accounts.

The Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases yesterday postponed its verdict on the alleged misconduct to August 31, but Boonsong said he wished to drop the charge as he wanted his wife to stay away from public attention, said the lawyer.

Boonsong has been sentenced to a 42-year jail term for faking government-to-government rice export deals, resulting in Bt16-billion financial damage to the state during the previous government’s implementation of the rice-pledging scheme. He is subject to making reparations worth around Bt1.7 billion.

Narin said his team of lawyers is also preparing to seek the ex-minister’s temporary release from jail, as he will petition the Supreme Court for a review of his sentence. They need to go through the bail proposition draft to ensure that they give the best reasons for the court to consider, he added.

It would probably be submitted to the court by next week, he said.

Boonsong’s wife visited him at Klong Prem Central Prison yesterday and found that he was still stressful and anxious. Narin said that Boonong had already seen a doctor in prison and would have another appointment.

The Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders early this month acquitted Somchai, his deputy Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, then-police chief Pol General Patcharawat Wongsuwan, and then-Metropolitan police chief Pol Lt-General Suchart Muenkaew.

The four defendants were found not guilty in regard to the police crackdown on yellow-shirt protesters in October 2008 that left two people dead and more than 400 injured.

The NACC agreed with the court acquittal on the first three defendants, but not the fourth, Pol Lt General Suchart. It claimed that he, as a commander of the operation on that day, knew the security procedures well and had authority to issue orders to cease the crackdown and the use of tear gas against the protestors, but did not do so.

The People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) on Monday filed a petition urging the body to expedite its decision on whether to appeal against the case, as the 30-day appeal deadline was drawing to a close. The PAD was concerned whether the NACC would appeal the case in time.

THE CENTRAL Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases yesterday sentenced former Pheu Thai leader Yongyuth Wichaidit to two years in jail for abusing his authority to help the Alpine Golf Club obtain two plots of temple land in Pathum Thani province.

The court found Yongyuth guilty of abusing his authority as the then deputy permanent secretary of the Interior Ministry, when he revoked an order made by the Land Department in 2002 about the temple land. It ruled that he revoked the order to help Alpine Real Estate Co Ltd and Golf and Sport Club Co Ltd unlawfully obtain the land.

Yongyuth’s eyes reddened upon hearing the court’s verdict yesterday. He refused to give any interview to media.

As of press time, Yongyuth is released on Bt500,000 bail, with travel restrictions, pending his appeal to the Appeals Court.

This case was filed against him by the National Anti-Corruption Commission last year.

The court ruled it was clear that the original owner of the land plots, Nuam Chamnanchartsakda, made a will to donate the two plots to the Thammikaram Worawiharn Temple.

In her 1969 will, Nuam donated the plots – measuring 148 hectares in total – to the temple. But a foundation, which has stepped in as her will executor, sold her land plots to to Alpine Real Estate and the Alpine Golf and Sports Club for Bt142 million. On that same day, these firms could mortgage those plots at Bt220million.

The companies – owned by family and friends of veteran politician Snoh Thienthong, deputy interior minister in charge of the Land Department at that time – developed the land including the golf course.

The assets were reportedly later sold to former premier Thaksin Shinawatra’s family at Bt500million in 1998.

In 2001, the Land Department issued an order to revoke the transfer of the land to the companies on the grounds that the ownership transfer was illegal.

But about 290 people appealed against the Land Department’s order, because they were adversely affected by it. Some are buyers of houses that have been built of the land plots.

Yongyuth then rescinded the order of the Land Department chief.

The court yesterday ruled that Nuam stated in her will that the land was to go to the temple and not the foundation.

The court said the temple had already registered the land as monastic land and had let people lease the plots for rice farming, showing that the temple had obtained ownership of the land.

The court added that Nuam’s will took effect immediately after her death. As a result, the Land Department chief’s order to prohibit the transfer of monastic land to the companies was valid.

The court ruled that Yongyuth intended to omit that fact and to interpret the law in favour of the companies, so he abused his authority to cause damage to the temple and to Buddhism.

Snoh has been off the hook because the stature of limitations for his alleged offences expired, before his case was brought to the court.

 Yingluck, whose government was toppled by the military in 2014, staged a disappearing act before a scheduled court judgement last Friday in a criminal negligence trial.

She faced up to ten years in prison and a lifetime ban from politics if convicted. But instead she was a no-show, with junta and party sources saying she had fled abroad.

Thailand’s junta has come under fire from some conservative allies over Yingluck’s disappearance, with many questioning how the authoritarian regime could have let her flee given that she was heavily monitored.

Army chief General Chalermchai Sitthisad gave a lengthy defence on Tuesday, which offered insights into how military intelligence kept track of Yingluck and how she might have slipped the net.

“As of now we learnt that she abandoned all of her phones and changed her cars so it was hard to trace her using the same methods we did before,” he told reporters, confirming military intelligence had previously used electronic and physical surveillance.

But Chalermchai said officers had recently been withdrawn from guarding the front of her Bangkok house.

“The public alleged that it was violating her personal rights and intimidating her so we withdrew the force,” he said.

Yingluck frequently complained of being constantly followed by military intelligence since she was ousted from office.

Thai media has been full of speculation about how she might have escaped, with most suggesting she went to Cambodia either by land or sea in the days before the court verdict and then on to Singapore.

A senior junta source told AFP they believed she had fled to Dubai, the base of Shinawatra family patriarch Thaksin, a billionaire who is Yingluck’s older brother.

Chalermchai said he thought it was unlikely Yingluck would have been able to fly directly out of Thailand given security procedures at airports, even for private flights. Instead, he said, a land or sea exit was more likely.

But he added that once outside Thailand she likely took a private flight organised by Thaksin.

“I believe that former prime minister Thaksin prepared a plan for her, for example a private aircraft which regular people cannot find,” he said.

The Shinawatra political dynasty began under Thaksin in 2001 with a series of groundbreaking welfare schemes that won them votes and the loyalty of the rural poor.

But their popularity rattled the royalist and army-aligned elite, who assailed successive governments linked to the clan with coups, court cases and protests.

Thaksin himself was toppled in a 2006 coup and fled overseas two years later to avoid jail for a corruption conviction.

The period since then — dubbed the “Lost Decade” — has seen frequent deadly street protests, short-lived governments and the return of military rule in 2014.

Police chief Chakthip Chaijinda said on Tuesday that the police would extend invitations to talk to at least 14 people, including some Pheu Thai’s ex-MPs, who reportedly met Yingluck at a hotel in Bangkok before she apparently fled the country.

Police earlier summoned her bodyguards to give their accounts. Pol Colonel Watanyu Wittayaphalothai, who has provided security to Shinawatra family political office holders since the premiership of Yingluck’s brother Thaksin, was one of them.

Deputy police chief Pol General Srivara Rangsipramanakul said he had met Watanyu on Monday and asked him what he knew. It was a useful discussion but he could not disclose any details at this point, Srivara said.

Chakthip said he had no clue as to why Yingluck fled or who helped her.

The immigration police have checked all possible departure points, including those at airports, but had found no clues whether she has slipped through any of them.

Thai police have contacted Interpol, which is represented in more than 190 countries, but so far have not yet received any replies.

“Unlike ordinary people, Yingluck had the potential to escape by herself. Her brother could prepare facilities for her, such as a private jet,” he said.

Chalermchai said Yingluck had repeatedly said she was ready to prove herself in court and had convinced people that she would not flee. But, he said, her plans to escape were made well in advance and she had just waited for the right time.

“We were not complacent,” he said. “Who would think that she would abandon her Bt30 million bail guarantee?”

Chalermchai said he believed Yingluck had left the country, even though there was no clear evidence that she had done so.

Hee admitted her escape exposed a flaw in the operations of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) and the Royal Thai Army, which oversees the border. However, he denied claims that the junta made a deal with Yingluck to escape, saying it would not have any benefit for the junta.

From his analysis, as an ex-premier, Yingluck had networks and enough supporters to help her flee, and would not need any help from authorities.

“I do not see any benefit [for the NCPO]. We are now blamed. PM Prayut [Chan-o-cha] calls me every day to expedite efforts to locate her,” he said.

If Yingluck was outside the country, she might make a verbal attack against the NCPO and it could not enforce any law against her, he said.

An arrest warrant was issued for Yingluck by the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions on Friday after she failed to turn up for the verdict reading in the case against her concerning alleged negligence in overseeing her government’s rice-pledging scheme.

Poyjairapee Teriyapirom, the ex-minister’s wife, filed the lawsuit against the chiefs of Departments of Foreign Trade and Legal Executions, after both agencies took action to have the bank accounts of Boonsong frozen as part of the government’s civil liability lawsuit against the ex-minister.

Boonsong has been sentenced to a 42-year jail term for faking government-to-government rice export deals, resulting in Bt16-billion financial damage to the state during the previous government’s implementation of the rice-pledging scheme.

Narin Somneuk, Boonsong’s lawyer, is also preparing to seek the ex-minister’s temporary release from jail, as he will petition the Supreme Court for a review of the sentence.

The team, led by Pol Colonel Watanyu Wittayaphalothai, met with Lad Phrao police and denied having prior knowledge of Yingluck’s decision to flee Thailand.

Police will match their statements against other facts collected in the case in a bid to find how Yingluck disappeared from her house on Yothin Pattana 3 before the reading of the court verdict in her negligence case last Friday.

Watanyu has provided security to Shinawatra political office-holders since Thaksin Shinawatra, following requests backed by the law.

However, Watanyu was seen as being too close to his subjects, including Yingluck.

“This is the police’s duty. The relevant officers will discuss this later on,” Don said. “The ministry is well prepared, but we still have not yet received notice of the matter.”

An arrest warrant against Yingluck was issued on Friday after the former premier failed to show up at the Supreme Court to hear a final ruling on a case of alleged negligence to stop irregularities in he government’s controversial rice-pledging scheme.

Her lawyer claimed that she was suffered from Meniere’s disease, but he failed to produce a medical certificate and did not convince the court that this was the case.

Yingluck’s brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, has had his Thai passport revoked several times by authorities. The most recent time was in 2015, after Thaksin allegedly defamed the Army in an interview with the press.

Living in self-exile abroad since the 2006 coup, Thaksin returned to Thailand in 2008 to report himself to the court.

The court found Yongyuth guilty of violating Article 157 of the Criminal Code for abusing his authority as the then deputy permanent secretary of the Interior Ministry, when he revoked an order made by the Land Department in 2002.

It ruled that he revoked the order to help Alpine Real Estate Co Ltd and Golf and Sport Club Co Ltd unlawfully obtain the land.

Yongyuth’s eyes reddened when the court sentenced him to the two years in jail without suspending the sentence.

He has sought a release on bail pending his appeal of the sentence to the Appeals Court.

The case was filed against him by the National Anti-Corruption Commission in 2016.

The court ruled that it was clear that the original owner of the land, Nuam Chamnanchartsakda, made a will to donate the two plots to the Thammikaram Worawiharn Temple.

In her 1969 will, Nuam donated the plots – measuring 148 hectares in total – to the temple.

In 1990, Nuam’s heritage managers were forced out and replaced by the Mahamakut Buddhist University Foundation.

The court stated in its ruling that the foundation later transferred ownership of land from the temple to the foundation and later sold it to Alpine Real Estate and the Alpine Golf and Sports Club for Bt142 million.

The companies – owned by family and friends of the late veteran politician Snoh Thienthong, deputy interior minister in charge of the Land Department at that time – developed the land including the golf course.

The assets were later sold to former premier Thaksin Shinawatra with the help of former Thai Rak Thai executive Pongsak Ruktapongpisal.

On the same day that the land was sold, the two companies mortgaged the land for Bt220 million, the court said.

Later, the Land Department issued an order to revoke the transfer of the land to the companies on the grounds that the ownership transfer was illegal.

After 290 people appealed against the Land Department’s order, Yongyuth rescinded the order of the Land Department chief.

The court ruled that Nuam stated in her will that the land was to go to the temple and not the foundation. The court said the temple had already registered the land as monastic land and had let people lease the plots for rice farming, showing that the temple had obtained ownership of the land.

The court added that Nuam’s will took effect immediately after her death. As a result, the Land Department chief’s order to prohibit the transfer of monastic land to the companies was valid.

The court ruled that Yongyuth intended to omit that fact and to interpret the law in favor of the companies, so he abused his authority to cause damage to the temple and to Buddhism.