Court seeks arrest warrant on former Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra .

Former Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra comes from a political dynasty hated by the military elite. Photograph: Rungroj Yongrit/EPA

A Thai court is seeking an arrest warrant for former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, toppled by military generals who took power in a 2014 coup, after she failed to appear to hear the verdict in her long-running trial.

Thousands of supporters had massed outside the country’s supreme court on Friday morning to witness the outcome of the trial over allegations of failing to prevent alleged corruption.

However Yingluck did not arrive and lawyer told the judge that his client was suffering from an issue with the fluid in her ear and was unable to attend.

The judge ruled the court would issue an arrest warrant and seize her bail bond.

“We don’t think that the defendant is ill. We think that the defendant is hiding or has fled ... We have pushed back the verdict date to September 27,” a statement from a Supreme Court judge said. “She asked for sick leave not to show up today.”

A spokeswoman for Yingluck declined to comment. However, her lawyer said he was not sure if she was still in the country.

The head of Thailand’s immigration police said he believed Yingluck was still in Thailand.

“Up until this point we have no information showing that Yingluck has exited via any of Thailand’s border check points,” Nanthathorn Prousoontorn said.

“If she is found she will be arrested.”

There were fears that a guilty verdict for charges of negligence in a controversial rice subsidies scheme would lead to confrontations between Yingluck supporters and the police. Yingluck faced up to 10 years in prison if convicted and a life ban from politics under the new military-drafted constitution.
The government had ordered more than 4,000 police and army officers to surround the court and warned against demonstrations.

After the court adjourned, there was confusion in the crowd of Yingluck supporters outside who had expected to see the political icon appear.

“What?” said a 75-year-0ld woman when told the court considered Yingluck to be a fugitive. “She won’t flee because she fights hard. She’s a working woman and a strong woman.”

The woman, who came from the poorer northeastern rural province of Isaan that is the Shinawatra support base, asked not to give her name as police were nearby.

Officers then asked the supporters to go home, saying they violated a junta-imposed law banning political gatherings of more than five people.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Yingluck had asked her followers to stay home, fearing people with “ill-intentions” might cause trouble against them.

“I want all of you to give me support by staying home and monitoring the news to avoid any risk of an unexpected incident by people with ill-intention against the country and us,” she said.

The Shinawatra family is a hugely influential political dynasty, that is loved by many of Thailand’s rural poor but hated by many of the royalist and military elite in Bangkok. Yingluck’s billionaire brother, Thaksin, was also toppled in a 2006 coup.

A former telecommunications tycoon, Thaksin has lived in self-exile to avoid a 2008 conviction for graft that he said was politically motivated.

The junta has tried to quash all dissent, outlawing political gatherings and locking up critics and opposition politicians. The Shinawatra party, Puea Thai, has won every election since 2001.

A rice subsidy scheme, which paid farmers nearly twice the market rate for their crop, was seen by Yingluck’s foes as handing billions of dollars to her voter base as well as unsold mountains of rotten rice.

Losses amounted to more than £6 billion, according to the government.

Anger against the policy led to street protests in 2013-14 that eventually overthrew Yingluck’s government. The former leader, whose family is on one side of a decade-old struggle, has said she is the victim of “a subtle political game”.

A military-backed legislature found Yingluck guilty in a separate impeachment case in 2015, and banned her from politics for five years.

Police had set up barricades and a checkpoint outside the Supreme Court and Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha said the administration wanted to avoid trouble.

“The government is worried about the people. We don’t want to use force,” Prayuth told reporters.

Source WorldNews/Guardian