Yingluck ‘in a foreign country’, says Prayut
Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha on Wednesday said fugitive former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra is now in foreign country but declined to elaborate which country.
“I do not know. Do not ask me,” he replied to reporters when asked if it was a neighbouring country or not.
The comment came before the Supreme Court verdict in Yingluck’s case came out.
On Tuesday, Prayut said he knew the whereabouts of Yingluck but declined to reveal her location until the Supreme Court verdict came out.
It was the first admission from the military regime that it had located the runaway ex-premier.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled unanimously to sentence Yingluck to five years in prison.
The fugitive politician was convicted of negligence in preventing corruption and irregularities in her government’s rice-pledging scheme prior to the 2014 coup. The Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders ruled that Yingluck had acknowledged the illegality of government-to-government rice deals but refused to cancel a contract with a Chinese state enterprise.
