Sightings of Yingluck are not rare, as she does not seem to be making any effort to hide her identity.
Fugitive former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is still waiting to hear if she will be granted political asylum status in the United Kingdom, a source from Pheu Thai Party said on Sunday.
The source confirmed that Yingluck had filed the request for political asylum in the UK after the Supreme Court released its guilty verdict against her in November for her involvement in the rice-pledging scheme case.
Yingluck fled the country in August just before the court was due to read its verdict. The court later sentenced her in absentia to five years in jail for neglecting her official duty while supervising the scheme, resulting in massive financial losses to the state.
Photographs of Yingluck were circulated in local media and social media last week purporting to show her in London. Thai police have since confirmed the woman in the photos is Yingluck but have not been able to confirm when the photos were taken.
“The police will contact the woman who was pictured with Yingluck in the latest photo,” Deputy National Police chief Gen Srivara Rangsibrahmanakul told the media, referring to the photograph of Yingluck with an unidentified woman, believed to be a Thai tourist, that appeared on the Twitter and Facebook accounts of certain individuals.
The photograph had a caption saying that the picture was taken outside the Harrods luxury departmental store in the city.
According to Srivara, the government had instructed the police to track down and arrest Yingluck so she can be brought back to Thailand to face justice.
He said the instruction had come from Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, who oversees the Royal Thai Police.
Thai officials revoked her four passports in late October so questions have been raised over which passport she used to gain entry into the UK.
The Pheu Thai Party source said Yingluck had no need to acquire a passport from any country for now because if her application for political asylum in the UK is successful she would be issued a passport or travel document which can be used from that date on.
Since her disappearance, media reports had speculated that Yingluck was in Dubai where her elder brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, owns a house or in London where she was thought to be applying for political asylum.
Pol Colonel Surapan Thaiprasert, deputy commander of the police’s Foreign Affairs Bureau, said that Interpol police in the United Arab Emirates had told their Thai counterpart in mid-November that Yingluck had left the UAE for the United Kingdom.
The Thai Interpol later asked their UAE counterparts about details of Yingluck’s flight to the UK but had still not received a reply, he said.
Yingluck, the leader of the Pheu Thai Party, has never issued any public statement since leaving Thailand.
It was also reported that Yingluck was spotted during the New Year holiday outside a shopping mall in London and she did not seem to be making any effort to hide her identity, nor did she appear to have any bodyguard nearby.
Reportedly, many Thai tourists and expatriates in London often asked to have their photos taken with Yingluck if they met her. Apparently, they would also ask her about her current life and expressed concern for her well-being.
In another alleged sighting, a woman resembling Yingluck was spotted in a London mall along with a boy who resembled her 15-year-old son Supasek Amornchat.
Earlier reports:
Sep 28, Thai Court Sentences Fugitive Yingluck to Five Years’ Jail
Aug 26, Former Thai PM Yingluck Fled to Dubai
Aug 25, Yingluck’s Lawyer Says Does Not Know If She Is Still in Thailand