Thai ex-prime minister Yingluck missing

Bangkok: Former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra is believed to have fled Thailand ahead of a verdict at her negligence trial where she faced up to 10 years jail, prompting ridicule from the junta that overthrew her.

“I thought she was brave enough to show up,” Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the army general who led a coup in 2014, told reporters.

An official of Yingluck’s Pheu Thai party, who is close to the Shinawatra family, told The Associated Press she was no longer in Thailand. The official gave no other details and declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject.

Yingluck, 50, who became Thailand’s first female prime minister when her party swept elections in 2011, is accused of negligence in overseeing a money-losing rice subsidy programme. She pleaded innocent and decried the charges as politically motivated.

Yingluck Shinawatra greets supporters as she leaves the Supreme Court on July 21.