Deputy PM ‘not aware’ of report placing Yingluck in London
Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan on Friday said he was not aware of a report that now places convicted former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra in London and seeking political asylum there.
Prawit was responding to a report by CNN on Friday, quoting a source from the Pheu Thai Party who said that Yingluck is now in London and seeking political asylum in the United Kingdom.
The last known whereabouts of Yingluck was disclosed on Thursday by Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha, who said that she is in Dubai where her brother, Thaksin, who is also living in self-exile, has a villa.
“I don't know [if Yingluck is in London],” Prawit said, adding that the Foreign Ministry had not given him any updated reports of Yingluck’s whereabouts as reported in foreign media.
Thaksin and his family are now in London where he has a Bt260 million house.
Prawit on Thursday said Yingluck promised not to be involved in any political activities while she is staying in the emirate.
Authorities in Dubai have also promised the Thai Foreign Ministry that they would keep an eye on Yingluck and ensure she did not participate in any political campaigns, Prawit said.
Yingluck was sentenced in absentia on Wednesday to five years in prison by the Supreme Court for negligence in preventing corruption and irregularities in her government’s rice-pledging scheme.
She fled the country days before she was scheduled to attend the reading of the verdict by the Supreme Court late last month.