Black day in Thailand

Fugitive former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra has been sentenced to a five-year jail term. 

The Supreme Court took almost four hours on Wednesday to read the verdict on Yingluck’s alleged negligence in her government’s rice-pledging scheme.

#Thailand - Police set up team to hunt Yingluck after ‘easy’ escape.

Interpol to assist as anti-corruption activist accuses authorities of negligence.

AMID a flurry of blame, accusations and speculation, authorities remain unable to explain how former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra was so easily able to escape justice.

Anti-corruption activist Srisuwan Junya yesterday lodged a petition with the National Anti-Corruption Commission, asking it to investigate the failure of top security officers to prevent Yingluck from fleeing the country.

 Srisuwan focused on Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, who oversees security matters, and police chief Pol General Chakthip Chaijinda, accusing them of being negligent in their duties. 

Prawit, who is also Defence Minister, said the activist has the right to do so, but reiterated that the authorities had no way to prevent Yingluck from fleeing the country.

“How could the authorities know when and where she would flee? Who would know it?” Prawit said at the Defence Ministry, in response to a reporter who pointed out that the authorities had closely monitored Yingluck’s movements even when she went to temples to make merit. The former premier had always complained that security officials and spies followed her everywhere.

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 “Yingluck’s escape was unexpected because she earlier always insisted that she would not flee. And there were police in front of her house all the time,” Prawit said. 

The authorities still have no official explanation as to how Yingluck failed to show up at the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions last Friday. Her whereabouts since have been the subject of intense speculation by the media, activists and observers. 

The court has postponed the verdict delivery to late next month, and has issued an arrest warrant, but nobody has a clear answer as to whether she will return to Thailand. 

Police have set up a team to track her, and the relevant agencies have been closely following movements around border areas, including natural land borders. Officers had been instructed to report the results of the operation every five days, deputy national police chief Pol General Srivara Ransibrahmanakul said.

Police in Lat Phrao have been instructed to check all the surveillance cameras around Yingluck’s house as well as her other residences in Bangkok and her hometown of Chiang Mai, but they have failed to find her, Srivara said.

Speculation denied

According to Srivara, Yingluck was last seen in her Bangkok home at 2pm on Wednesday. Officers from Lat Phrao Police Station, who were responsible for supervising Yingluck’s residence, said other people in the house had confirmed that she no longer lived there. 

Royal Thai Police will now seek the cooperation of Interpol to alert police forces in 190 countries around the world about Yingluck’s current legal status. 

Media citing unnamed sources reported that she had fled via Cambodia and Singapore to Dubai to join her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, who has a home there. The government in Phnom Penh dismissed the report, and authorities in Dubai also said they know nothing about Yingluck’s whereabouts.

Pol Maj-General Apichart Suriboonya, head of the police foreign affairs division, said the police had contacted officials in Cambodia and the United Arab Emirates but had received no information. 

Apichart told reporters about normal procedures, saying that Interpol could take “quite some time”. If any member of Interpol located Yingluck, Thai police could seek an international arrest warrant to have her apprehended. However, it would be up to Interpol how the case was conducted. 

Like everybody else, Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday denied speculation that the National Council for Peace and Order deliberately let Yingluck slip out of the country, saying it was beyond his expectation that she would flee.

“I didn’t think it would happen. In the morning [of the verdict], I still thought that she would go to court, following the procedure. I respected her,” Prayut said. 

Bombarded with questions about the incident, Prayut said furiously: “Who would let her flee? How come, why did you think like this?”

Prayut said he had instructed security officers to find out how the former premier left the country. They would also look at flaws in the process in order to prevent it happening again.

Prayut, who is also the head of the junta, said it was difficult for the authorities to follow Yingluck |before the court had made its judgment because they respected her privacy. 

Officers had been criticised over their possible violation of human rights, Prayut noted, adding that that had made everything difficult.

Prayut said he didn’t want people to blame the security officers, saying that the media should tone down its criticism. It would be “insane” if officers intentionally let her flee, he said.

Source - TheNation

 

#Thailand - Sa Kaeo immigration officers step up vehicle checks in search for Yingluck

Immigration police and troops at the Aranyaprathet border checkpoint in Sa Kaeo province on Friday stepped up their checks of vehicles leaving the country as part of the search for former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

The ex-PM had failed earlier in the day to attend the Supreme Court to hear the judgement in the rice-pledging case against her.

At 10am, Sa Kaeo immigration police chief Pol Colonel Benjapol Rodsawat issued an urgent order for officials manning the checkpoint to strictly check all vehicles leaving the Kingdom.

Following the order, the immigration police and troops opened all vehicles to check the passengers. They especially examined vehicles with Cambodian licence plates.

Benjapol also sought help from Colonel Nirot Thongmuan, commander of the 12th Ranger Taskforce, Maj-General Hathaitep Kirati-angkul, commander of the 19th Army Circle, and Aranyaprathet district chief Soawanit Suriyakul to intensively check vehicles travelling on border roads in the district.

Source - TheNation
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#Thailand - Massive security force to be fielded for Yingluck verdict.

4,000 officers to be stationed at court as 3,500 supporters of ex-pm expected.

ABOUT 4,000 security officers will be deployed to maintain order at the Supreme Court on Friday, when up to 3,500 people are expected to gather in a show of support for former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

On that day, the high court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders is scheduled to deliver its verdict in the case, in which Yingluck is accused of negligence in connection with her government’s corruption-plagued rice-pledging scheme.

Security measures will also include 40 more surveillance cameras and three walk-through metal detectors installed in the area, in addition to three patrolling helicopters, 20 riot trucks and four ambulances, according to Metropolitan Police deputy chief Pol Maj-General Panurat Lakboon.

Of the nearly 16,000-square-metre court premises, 1,500 square metres would be allocated for Yingluck’s supporters, Panurat said yesterday. 

Barricades would also be erected and officers posted to prevent Yingluck’s supporters – or “third parties with bad intent” – from trespassing in restricted court areas, he said. 

Authorities have repeatedly warned of unidentified “third parties” that could try to create chaos during the event.

The crowd will be monitored using CCTV, the Bangkok deputy police chief said, adding that anyone who violated the law or provoked the crowd would be recorded by the cameras and could expect to face an arrest warrant. 

Supreme Court officials yesterday also told the media planning to cover the verdict that security measures had been laid out including a plan to set up checkpoints at every gate at the Chaeng Wattana government complex, with free access only at the main gate near the Administrative Court.

News reporters were advised to submit their car licence numbers in advance to avoid any difficulties.

A police source said security checkpoints would also be set up in various areas across the country starting from tomorrow ahead of “judgment day”. Any suspicious movements would be blocked and the people involved could be detained, he said.

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#Thailand - PM denies court interference.

Former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra is surrounded by supporters as she arrives at the Supreme Court yesterday to make her closing statement in the case linked to her government’s controversial rice-pledging scheme.

‘No concern’ about mobilization ahead of August 25 verdict.

PRIME MINISTER General Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday rejected allegations by former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, insisting that he had never interfered in the judicial process as she alleged during her closing remarks to the Supreme Court yesterday. 

Yingluck earlier said in court that junta chief Prayut, who staged a coup to topple her government three years ago, had implied in a recent statement that she was guilty in the case relating to her government’s rice-pledging scheme, otherwise she would never have been brought to court. 

Prayut said yesterday the junta government had only provided testimony as witnesses for the plaintiff, which is the government itself.

“I never led [the decision] of the court. I don’t have to order them,” the premier said. “The judicial system is always independent. They have inspected the issues based on facts and they’ve finished.”

Yingluck is accused of negligence and malfeasance for allegedly ignoring corruption related to the rice-pledging scheme conducted while she was in office, despite a warning from the Office of the Auditor-General. 

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