Yingluck considers asylum applications for UK, Germany and France
Fugitive former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra is considering applying for political asylum in three European countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, a source from her legal team said on Friday.
Yingluck is now residing in the UK on a tourist visa, the source said, but declined to elaborate which passport she uses.
The source said the UK is her preferred location to seek asylum because her brother Thaksin, who is living in exile in Dubai, has a residence there.
“Khun Yingluck is fine. She enjoys cooking with close friends who visit her. But she will remain silent for a while,” the source said.
The Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders last month sentenced Yingluck to five years in jail for negligence in preventing corruption and irregularities in her government rice-pledging scheme. She fled Thailand in late August to Dubai and London prior to the original scheduled reading of the verdict..
She is now in the process of drafting an asylum request but first needs a full court verdict to submit. The detailed reasons for judgment are expected to be released in the next few days.
Her legal team will use the detailed verdict to help justify her application for asylum status.
“We need to prove that Yingluck is being politically bullied,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It’s not safe for her to stay in Thailand.
“We will tell [the country she will apply to] that she was faced with unfair justice since her government was toppled by a coup and had to flee the country,” the source said.