Yingluck, 50, was due on Friday morning to arrive at the Supreme Court for the ruling in her trial for criminal negligence that could have seen her jailed for 10 years.

But she did not show up, wrong-footing the court and her supporters alike as she wrote a dramatic closing chapter to the 16-year political saga of her mega-rich Shinawatra family.

Speculation swirled on Saturday on the whereabouts of Thailand’s first female prime minister — and her possible escape route.

The junta source, who is well-placed in the security hierarchy, gave a detailed description of her escape, saying she took a private jet from Thailand to Singapore and onto Dubai, the base of Shinawatra family patriarch Thaksin, who is Yingluck’s older brother.

“Thaksin has long prepared escape plan for his sister… he would not allow his sister to spend even a single day in prison,” the source added, requesting anonymity.

“But Dubai is not Yingluck’s final destination,” the source said, adding she may be aiming “to claim asylum in Britain”.

Thaksin, who once owned Manchester City football club, owns property in London and spends significant amounts of time in the city.

The Shinawatra’s political network remained tight-lipped on Saturday in a media blackout that only served to heighten speculation over her dash from Thailand and the likelihood of a possible deal with the junta to allow her to leave.

A senior source inside the family’s Pheu Thai party, also requesting anonymity, on Saturday told AFP Yingluck had fled the country for Dubai a few days before the ruling.

The Shinawatra political dynasty emerged in 2001 with a series of groundbreaking pro-poor welfare schemes that won them elections but rattled Thailand’s royalist, army-aligned elite, who battered successive governments linked to the clan with coups, court cases and protests.

Yingluck’s government was toppled by a coup in 2014 and she was put on trial over negligence linked to a costly rice subsidy that propped up her rural political base.

Thaksin, Yingluck’s elder brother, has been based partly in Dubai since he fled Thailand in 2008 to avoid jail for a corruption conviction. He was toppled from power by a 2006 coup.

Houdini act

Thai newspapers reported that Yingluck fled through a land border to Cambodia, flew to Singapore and on to Dubai, perhaps two days before her court date.

It was a disappearing act that appeared to surprise even her family — an elder brother and sister waited at the court for her arrival alongside thousands of supporters.

Shinawatra loyalists expressed sympathy with her shock move, saying the ruling would have been predetermined as her case was politically motivated.

“If she has fled abroad it is because this set of judges are appointed by the military and do not come from a democratic system,” Surachet Chaikosol, 59, a ‘Red Shirt’ activist told AFP.

“I am glad she will not suffer in jail.”

Thai junta chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha on Friday denied knowledge of Yingluck’s whereabouts and expressed surprise at her no-show “as she always insisted that she would fight the case”.

Analysts say Yingluck, who was closely monitored by Thai security services, most likely cut a deal to exit the country.

The decision to flee helps her avoid being jailed under a Thai junta that pressed for her trial and diminishes the possibility of pro-Shinawatra protests.

The military is desperate to avoid instability as it digs in for a long stay in Thai politics.

The Supreme Court will deliver its ruling in absentia on September 27.

Meechai said Yingluck’s absence from court yesterday violated the law and it was thus legitimate to seize her bail of Bt30 million.

The noted legal expert explained that, in line with court procedures, the verdict reading would be postponed for 30 days, after which the court may deliver its ruling in her absence.

However, Yingluck can still appeal the verdict – a right that is guaranteed under the new charter. But if a pending new law on court procedures against political officeholders is enacted, she will have to be present in court to make an appeal. The statute of limitation on her case, of 15 to 20 years, would also become invalid under the new law, he added.

Meechai confirmed a guilty verdict would mean she faced a lifetime political ban, since violation of Article 157 disqualifies an election candidate under the new charter.

Meanwhile, Yingluck’s no-show yesterday drew mixed responses from political figures.

Key Democrat figure Warong Dejkijvikrom, who pushed a motion in Parliament on the controversial government-to-government (G-to-G) sales under the rice-pledging scheme, posted on Facebook that Yingluck might have felt unsure about the verdict and wanted to first hear the ruling on her former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom Boonsong, in the G-to-G case.

But as she was absent yesterday, it’s finished for her, he said.

Tawisan Lonanurak, a former People’s Democratic Reform Committee member in Nakhon Ratchasima, said he was surprised that Yingluck did not show up at the court after travelling around the country praying for good fortune and declaring publicly she would fight for justice.

Sompoch Prasartthai, a red-shirt coordinator in the same province, said he understood that Yingluck was under pressure over the ruling, which seemed likely to bring negative consequences for her, while reconciliation was not in sight. That could be the reason she decided not to show up yesterday, he ventured.

The nine judges of the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Office on the panel trying Yingluck’s case were scheduled to read their individual decisions on Friday. Then a discussion between the judges would lead to a majority opinion.

But after Yingluck jumped bail and did not appear in the court Friday, the decisions of the nine judges remained sealed in envelopes. The judges are not allowed to discussion their decision with peers until the day of the ruling. The final ruling will be based on a majority decision of the nine judges, said the source.

Because Yingluck did not attend the court ruling on Friday, the court was required by law to issue an arrest warrant for police to capture and bring her to court within a month.

Law authorises the judges to announce their individual decisions at the subsequent official ruling on September 30, a month after the originally scheduled reading. The presence of the defendant would not be necessary on that date, the source added.

Boonsong’s relatives joined his lawyer Narin Somnuek and Phumi’s daughter in an early-morning visit to the prison.

Relatives of Akarapong Chuaykiang, the also-jailed former secretary of Department of Foreign Trade came with them.

But all were told that they would have to wait until Monday before they would be allowed to visit the three prisoners.

On Friday, Boonsong was handed a 42-year sentence, while Phumi Saraphol was given a 36-year jail term, for approving four bogus government-to-government rice export deals with China which cost the treasury massive losses.

Akarapong was jailed 34 years.

Narin declined to tell reporters details of his plan to seek Boonsong’s release on bail.

Phumi’s daughter said she had concerns about her father’s living conditions, given that he suffers from several chronic ailments and requires medicine regularly.

She admitted that it could be difficult to seek his release on bail because of the sentence’s harshness, and because former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra jumped bail on Friday and fled abroad rather than appearing at the Supreme Court for the verdict reading of her case.

Krit Krasaethip, chief of the Bangkok Remand Prison, told Nation TV in a phone interview that nobody would be allowed to visit the inmates on Saturday. They could be visited on Monday.

Krit said it would be normal for Boonsong and other new inmates to be stressed on their first night in jail but there is nothing to be worried about. He said those who have chronic ailments could have their own medicine.

Krit said Boonsong and other inmates convicted over the government-go-government rice deal would be detained at the Bangkok Remand Prison for a few days before being sent to the Klong Prem Maximum Security Prison where those with jail terms exceeding 15 years are detained.

Metropolitan Police Area 4 chief Maj-General Nanthachat Supamongkol, who oversees Lat Phrao Police district where Yingluck’s house is located, said the search warrant was a sensitive issue so he needed to wait for his supervisor’s command.

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 negligence case against her former government’s controversial rice-pledging scheme. The court postponed the verdict reading to September 27 and ordered the seizure of Yingluck’s Bt30-million bail.

Yingluck is now “safe and sound” in Dubai, CNN reported last night, citing a high ranking Pheu Thai Party official

Yingluck’s brother Thaksin, who is also a former prime minister and also toppled by a military coup, lives in Dubai and London in self-imposed exile to avoid abuse-of-power charges.

Nanthachat said he had ordered police forces to be dispatched to monitor her house and keep law and order.

So far, there was nothing happening at the property, he said. He added police had talked to Yingluck’s maids and housekeepers but they denied knowing anything.

“We are sure we have not overlooked anything. We have emphasised to officers the need to strictly monitor the place and will do it for a while until the situation returns to normal,” he said.

Yingluck’s house in Bangkok’s Bueng Kum District had been very quiet since the owner fled the country days before facing the verdict.

Some media are still staking out the front of her house to report on any occurrences.

“We have to support her, like we support Suu Kyi,” he said on Friday (Aug 25), referring to Myanmar’s de facto leader and former political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent more than a decade under house arrest.

That was the conundrum facing Thailand’s military government as judges prepared to deliver the verdict in the criminal negligence case on Thailand’s first female prime minister.

Unlike her brother Thaksin Shinawatra, a telecommunications magnate turned politician who was ousted as prime minister in 2006 and sentenced to jail in absentia in 2008 for conflict of interest, Yingluck had chosen to remain in the Kingdom to fight the charge that she mismanaged the country’s multi-billion dollar rice subsidy scheme.

Since being ousted by the 2014 military coup, she has been retroactively impeached and had her assets frozen. Had the verdict that had been scheduled to be read yesterday gone against her, she could have been jailed.

The verdict could have inadvertently created a martyr figure in the biggest and most successful political party in Thailand.

Her no-show lowers that risk, but not for long.

“(The sentiments of) existing supporters won’t be affected,” said Australian National University fellow Tyrell Haberkorn. “They were not affected by Thaksin’s similar decision to flee.”

While there was no official confirmation that Yingluck has left Thailand, none of the Pheu Thai politicians and their supporters contacted by The Straits Times were upset about the possibility that she has fled.

Thida Thavornseth, a key United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) leader, told The Straits Times: “We understand. Maybe it is good for her. We cannot ask her to donate all her life to the fight (for democracy).”

But she also said that Yingluck’s disappearance would make it harder for the UDD to advocate for the rule of law. “If everyone runs away and goes abroad, it means the fight for the rule of law would be a long one.”

The court ruling, had it gone ahead, would have been seminal in another way, establishing a legal judgment on whether a politician should face criminal penalties for policy failure.

Privately, some Pheu Thai supporters mused at how awkward it was that she skip court at the last moment after braving two years of legal processes that supporters claim were stacked against her. But they felt that the public sympathy would eventually outweigh that surprise.

With the country now past its third year under military rule and an election that has not appeared on the horizon, the farmers who turned up yesterday to support Yingluck said there was little they could have done to help her.

Her no-show would not affect Pheu Thai very much, Ubon Ratchathani political scientist Titipol Phakdeewanich said. “The arrest warrant reinforces the idea that Yingluck and Pheu Thai were victims of the system.”

Yong, the Kamphaeng Phet farmer, said: “There will be a Yingluck No. 2. And I will still support the Pheu Thai.”

Yingluck left Thailand on Wednesday and is now “safe and sound” in Dubai, the source told the US broadcaster.

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 negligence case against her. The case was related to her former government’s controversial rice-pledging scheme.

The court postponed the verdict reading to September 27 and ordered the seizure of Yingluck’s Bt30-million bail.

Yingluck’s brother Thaksin, who is also a former prime minister and also toppled by a military coup, lives in Dubai and London in self-imposed exile to avoid abuse-of-power charges.

The deputy national police chief told CNN that there was no official record of Yingluck leaving the country, which would suggest she first slipped into a neighbouring nation by crossing through a land border.

Asked if it was possible she fled via a natural land border, Pol General Srivara Rangsibhramanakul would only say: “That is possible.”

THE SUPREME Court yesterday sentenced former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom and 19 others to jail terms of 24-48 years for their leading roles in executing fake government-to-government (G-to-G) rice deals during the previous Yingluck government’s tenure, causing Bt16.9-billion financial damage to the state.

Boonsong got a harsh sentence of 42 years while former deputy commerce minister Phumi Saraphol was given a 36-year jail term for approving four G-to-G rice export deals with China which turned out to be bogus, causing the massive financial damage to taxpayers.

A former chief of the Department of Foreign Trade at the Commerce Ministry as well as other senior officials responsible for international rice trading were also sentenced to lengthy jail terms as was Apichart Jansakulporn, owner of rice trading firm Siam Indiga Co.

Boonsong and others were sent to the Bangkok central prison after the high court read the verdict on this controversial case which is connected to the previous government’s rice-pledging scheme in which former premier Yingluck Shinawatra was accused of negligence of duty while implementing the programme.

According to the highest court, both ex-ministers violated several sections of the Criminal Code |and abused their authority when formulating the G-to-G deals which turned out to be fake with no rice exported to China as announced.

Instead of exporting the rice to China, the first deal led to the illegal sale of 2.19 million tonnes of government-owned rice, acquired under the rice-pledging scheme, at a relatively low price of Bt10,000 to multiple domestic traders who benefited from the lack of competitive bidding.

Siam Indiga owner Apichart, who is already imprisoned in a separate fraud case, was instrumental in colluding with state officials to make illegal rice sales to domestic traders for huge profits.

The first bogus deal involving 2.19 million tonnes of rice resulted in an estimated Bt9.7-billion financial damage to the state.

In the second deal, another 2 million tonnes of rice was also sold domestically at a relatively low price to domestic traders, not exported to China as announced, resulting in an estimated Bt1.29-billion financial damage.

When two other fake deals were included, the state suffered financial damage estimated at a total of Bt16.9 billion.

The high court also ordered Apichart, Siam Indiga and others to pay Bt16.9 billion compensation to the state.

Bogus G-to-G export deals with China were understood to be tactics used to promote the rice-pledging programme to ensure that there was public support since large quantities of rice purchased from farmers at an inflated price could be quickly exported to big markets like China.

According to the court, there were a total of 28 persons indicted in this case, including officials of seven private rice-trading firms, but two persons fled and seven were acquitted.

All 4 G-to-G deals were invalid

The high court held a total of 20 hearings on this case with 27 witnesses provided by the public prosecutors and 103 witnesses provided by the defendants.

According to the court, all four G-to-G rice deals signed between the Thai authorities and two Chinese state enterprises, were invalid, since only China National Cereals, Oil and Foodstuff Import Export Corp (COFCO) was authorised to enter into G-to-G deals on behalf of the Chinese government.

At this stage, it remains unclear if Boonsong and others would be released on bail on Monday to seek a review of judgements.

Under the current Constitution, which became effective in April this year, both defendants and plaintiffs have the right to appeal cases within 30 days, regardless whether there is new evidence or not.

A lawyer for Boonsong yesterday also submitted a request to the court for a temporary release of the ex-minister.

Kobkiat Kasiwiwat, director-general of the Corrections Department, said all convicted persons will have to provide personal information for prison records and undergo physical examination while those facing jail terms of more than 15 years will be sent to the Klongprem prison.

FORMER prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra has left Thailand and is unlikely to be in any of the neighbouring countries, Deputy Premier and Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan confirmed hours after the Supreme Court issued a warrant for her arrest yesterday.

He said authorities of Singapore, where Yingluck was rumoured to have flown to, had told their Thai counterparts that she had not entered that country.

“We don’t know exactly in which country Yingluck is now,” General Prawit said.

Prawit, who is in charge of the police force, said he would not dismiss a high-ranking police officer rumoured to have helped Yingluck flee the country.

There was speculation that the former prime minister could have fled to Cambodia, Singapore, Hong Kong or Dubai.

A security source said Yingluck went to Koh Chang in the eastern seaboard province of Trat and flew in a helicopter to Phnom Penh, from where she reportedly took a chartered plane to Singapore. She was accompanied by a senior state official who helped facilitate her departure without having to pass proper immigration process, according to the source.

The Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions yesterday issued an arrest warrant for Yingluck after she failed to turn up for the verdict reading in the negligence case against her over her government’s rice-pledging scheme. The court postponed the verdict reading to September 27 and ordered the seizure of Yingluck’s Bt30-million bail.

Red-shirt leaders and Yingluck’s lawyers yesterday said they were unaware of her whereabouts. However, a senior figure from her Pheu Thai Party said she had fled the country on Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday.

Requesting anonymity, the senior source in the Shinawatras’ political party said, “It’s impossible she left without the military’s green light.”

Democrat Party deputy leader Nipit Intarasombat yesterday said the ruling junta National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) should also be held responsible for Yingluck’s escape.

“Did the NCPO let her escape? She was still in the country a day or two before. In the next 24 hours, she must be arrested. If she can’t be arrested, the NCPO will get into trouble,” the politician said.

Deputy national police chief Pol General Srivara Rangsibhramanakul yesterday said he has ordered police searches of Yingluck’s houses in Bangkok and in the provinces after an arrest warrant for her was issued. Court permission was needed for police to conduct searches.

Srivara said police have not had confirmation from any neighbouring country that Yingluck had fled there.

Yingluck’s mobile phone signals were detected as coming from her house in Bangkok’s Bueng Kum area, according to a police source.

After news of Yingluck’s no-show, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said he assigned authorities to check her whereabouts. “I have assigned officials to check the borders and transit points to find out where she is,” he said.

Immigration Bureau commissioner Pol Lt-General Nathathorn Prousoontorn said there was no indication that Yingluck sought to leave the country through the normal immigration procedure.

“I affirm that, up to now, there is no record of Yingluck leaving the country via any immigration checkpoint, including those at the airports and on the borders,” Nathathorn said.

He said the former prime minister has been prohibited from leaving the country since May 19, 2015, when the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions accepted the state lawsuit against her.

He said if Yingluck had left on a private jet, a record of the flight would have appeared in the Immigration Bureau’s online database. However, had she left discreetly via a land border, the bureau would have no record of it, he acknowledged. He said the last time Yingluck was known to have left Thailand was in late 2014, when she travelled to Japan.

In 2008, Yingluck’s elder brother Thaksin Shinawatra also opted to leave the country before the same court sentenced him in absentia to two years in jail for abuse of power while serving as prime minister. He has lived in self-exile overseas while retaining his influence in Pheu Thai and Thai politics.

Analysts say if both siblings are now in exile, their time in Thailand’s political arena is over, AFP reported.

“It is the end of the Shinawatras and the Pheu Thai Party in politics,” said Puangthong Pawakpan, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn University.

“With two family members as fugitives, the family loses political legitimacy,” she said, adding that Yingluck’s departure would be welcomed by a junta weary of the prospect of her political martyrdom in jail.

Assoc Prof Adisorn Naowanont, a lecturer at Rajabhat Nakhon Ratchasima University, said that with Yingluck’s escape he expected Pheu Thai to become weaker and the ruling junta to remain in power for at least seven to eight years, as it would get backing from more and more political parties.

Meanwhile, former finance minister Korn Chatikavanij expressed surprise that Yingluck failed to show up for the verdict. “I’m surprised she has fled, as she has a chance of being acquitted,” he said.

Korn, a senior Democrat Party politician, also said he disagreed with the Finance Ministry’s move to seize Yingluck’s assets in order to pay for the cost of the controversial subsidy programme.

Asset seizure should be undertaken via the trial process, in the same way the Supreme Court had done in the case of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, he said. The ministry’s order for asset seizure could be seen as a political ploy by the junta government, the ex-minister added.

Kalin Sarasin, chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, expressed relief after Yingluck did not turn her up for the Supreme Court verdict reading yesterday. “Political confrontation would lessen after Yingluck did not show up at the court, and this would improve the political climate,” he said.

Looking forward, the private sector expects political stability, he added.

He also said that foreign investors were not much concerned about yesterday’s verdict but they were more worried about whether it was safe to live in Thailand and whether they could make a profit.

They arrived at dawn to wait for their beloved former premier and even though they did not get to see her, they had no regrets at all.

Moreover, her supporters told the Nation they believed she would eventually play by the rules … when the rule of law could be guaranteed to the Shinawatras.

They said Yingluck’s disappearance yesterday might have been her best option, considering how unfairly they felt she had been treated in law under the junta government.

“We’re aware that her claim about suffering from Meniere’s disease may or may not be true,” said Chantalak Sangkhayothin from Petchburi. “While I’m concerned about her health, whether she lied or not is the least of our worries. And it doesn’t break our faith in her.”

Another Yingluck fan, who wanted to remain anonymous, said a few hours after the Supreme Court was told Yingluck was reportedly sick: “The court just wants to shoo us away but we won’t move. She’ll certainly show up this afternoon.”

The former prime minister did not, however, appear, and her fans eventually started packing their things and leaving. Police officers standing guard also appeared to relax their tight control over people’s movements.

But some still stayed to support Yingluck’s ex-commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom, who in the afternoon was sentenced to 42 years in jail. The crowd booed at passing prison vans but did nothing further than that.

The authorities have been intercepting vehicles that allegedly had people on board who were planning to attend the hearing despite the junta’s ban on political gatherings. Thousands managed to turn up from several provinces, and some even travelled from abroad.

Approached by The Nation, many said they were either farmers or relatives of farmers. They had specially gone to thank Yingluck for the very reason she had been prosecuted – the rice-pledging scheme.

They never accepted that she was guilty of neglect, they said, and since they had benefited from receiving higher rice prices through Yingluck’s scheme they did not feel the country had been damaged.

They also raised questions about the way the junta had proceeded with the rice stocks remaining from Yingluck’s administration. “The way they have sold the rice and dealt with rice mill operators has not been transparent?” said Daopradab, a medical technologist from Bangkok. “We have not seen any damage so how can we believe there was any?”

Daopradab was wearing a red shirt with the words “Team Pu” on it, in reference to Yingluck’s nickname. Twenty other people wore the same shirts. The group said they had met each other at a Chiang Mai temple where Yingluck was making merits. “Should she want to flee, she would have done it ages ago,” a die-hard fan said. “Staying here won’t guarantee justice. It is the same with her brother, Thaksin. Is it fair for those having served people to be deprived of their freedom? No, so they were better off leaving.”