FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Thai police seek Interpol help to find Yingluck

Thai police seek Interpol help to find Yingluck

Deputy National Police Chief Pol General Srivara Ransibrahmanakul on Monday ordered the police foreign affairs division to seek cooperation from Interpol, which has member police forces in 190 countries, in locating fugitive former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

Officers from Lat Phrao Police Station, who are responsible for supervising Yingluck’s residence, have confirmed with other people in the house that she no longer lives there, Srivara said.
Yingluck was last seen at the house on August 23, around 2pm, the deputy police chief said.
Police in the area had been instructed to check all the surveillance cameras around the house as well as Yingluck’s other residences in Bangkok and her hometown of Chiang Mai, but had failed to find her, Srivara said.
Yingluck reportedly fled Thailand last Wednesday and is now rumoured to be with her brother Thaksin in Dubai. There have been reports that she might seek asylum in the United Kingdom. Thaksin – another former prime minister who was toppled by a military coup – lives in Dubai and London in self-imposed exile to avoid abuse-of-power charges.
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 a negligence case against her 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.
Srivara said all related agencies were closely following any movement around the country’s borders, including the natural land borders, and had been instructed to report the results of the operation every five days.
There was no official record of Yingluck departing the country, he said. It was possible that she used the land border to flee, he said, adding that anyone who could drive could use this channel.
It had been beyond the police’s expectations that Yingluck would flee, Srivara said.
Pol Maj-General Apichart Suriboonya, head of the police foreign affairs division, said that following speculation that Yingluck had fled to Cambodia, Thai police had contacted their counterparts there. The Cambodian police said there was no official record of the former PM being in that country.
Regarding rumours that Yingluck was in Dubai, Apichart said the police would contact police in the United Arab Emirate to verify these claims. He added that the UAE is one of the 190 members of Interpol, which has channels for its members to cooperate.
Apichart said it could take “quite some time” to get a response from Interpol member countries.
If a foreign police force located Yingluck, Thai police could seek an international arrest warrant to have her apprehended. However, Apichart said it would be up to Interpol how it handled the case.

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