Thai FM confirms ex-premier Yingluck in London

APD NEWS

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By APD writer Chen Jiabao

**BANGKOK, Jan.9 (APD) - **The foreign minister of Thailand confirmed on Tuesday that fugitive former minister Yingluck Shinawatra was in Britain.

At Government House where he attended a weekly cabinet meeting, Don Pramudwinai ,the Thai foreign minister said he has been informed since last September by the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs that Yingluck is in London.

Whether or not Yingluck may have already filed a request for political asylum in England was not reported by the British authorities to Thailand as yet, according to the Thai foreign minister.

Don said Yingluck might probably use a foreign country's passport to travel to England and elsewhere in the world since her Thailand passports were earlier revoked.

Don didn't give any comment on whether Thailand will seek Yingluck's extradition.

He also declined to answer whether the Thai government will lodge an objection on the British government if Yingluck applied for political asylum there, saying the issue will not affect the Thailand-Britain relations.Thailand and the United Kingdom have an extradition treaty.

The Pheu Thai Party led the the former lady premier recently unveiled that Yingluck has sought asylum in Britain.

The party said if Yingluck was granted political asylum there, she would be issued a passport or travel document which can be used for five years.

Legal experts said if Yingluck could provide full proof that she was politically persecuted, the British government would consider to approve the asylum. They said a detailed address in Britain is needed when applying for asylum.

Yingluck was widely rumored to go shopping in London during the New Year holiday and a picture of her posing alongside an unidentified woman in the English capital has gone viral in social media.

Last August, she reportedly fled

Thailand via Cambodia with the help of a few police officers and found her way to the United Arab Emirates, where her self-exiled brother/ former premier Thaksin Shinawatra has been residing since the last decade.

Her surprise escapee shortly preceded a final verdict delivered by the Supreme Court over a criminal lawsuit involving a rice subsidy program run by a deposed government which she had led several years ago.

She was ruled guilty and sentenced by the Supreme Court to five years in jail on misconduct charges related to the scandalous rice program.

The Thai authorities repeatedly commented that Yingluck is yet to be found and brought back to Bangkok to serve her time in prison.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)