Former Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra has 'fled country' ahead of trial verdict

Bangkok, Thailand (CNN)Thailand’s former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has fled the country as a court was about to deliver a verdict in a two-year trial over agricultural subsidies, a source close to her family says.

The source declined to say where she had gone, but Thailand’s top immigration official said there were no records of Yingluck having left the country through proper channels.

Yingluck failed to show up to hear the verdict being delivered. Her lawyer said she was ill but the court rejected the explanation and Thailand’s Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant.

The lawyer, Norawit Larleang, told CNN that he didn’t know whether the former prime minister was in Thailand or had left the country.

Yingluck has been barred from leaving the country without court approval since 2015, when her trial started.

Her bail of 30 million baht ($900,000), posted when the trial began more than two years ago,has been confiscated.

The former Thai leader faced up to 10 years in prison for alleged negligence over a rice-buying scheme, which cost the country billions of dollars. The court has set a new date for the verdict of September 27.

Source: Former Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra has ‘fled country’ ahead of trial verdict