Police want Blue Interpol notice for Yingluck
The hunt for Thai fugitive and former Prime Minister Yingluck shinawatra heats up with police urging Interpol to issue a blue notice.
THAI POLICE have asked Interpol to issue a “blue notice” in their search for fugitive ex-PM Yingluck Shinawatra.
They have asked the international policing body to issue the notice in 192 countries.
Deputy national police spokesman Pol Colonel Krissana Pattanacharoen said Thai police expect Interpol to take the next “more serious” step in their investigation.
Interpol notices are alerts, or requests for cooperation, sent to police in member countries. The blue notice would notify countries to “collect additional information about a person’s identity, location or activities”.
The “blue notice” is one step behind the most serious “red notice” where member countries are asked to “seek … and arrest the wanted person”.
Thai police have also contacted authorities in the United Kingdom, where some sources have said Yingluck is seeking political asylum. They have yet to hear back from UK authorities, Krissana said.
The UK is believed to be Yingluck’s final destination after she initially fled to Dubai. The Thai Consulate General in Dubai refused to comment on Yingluck’s case when contacted by The Nation.
Yingluck fled on August 23, two days before she was due at the Supreme Court to hear the final ruling in her trial for malfeasance related to her government’s controversial rice-pledging scheme.
It is believed she rode in two sedans from her Bangkok residence to Sa Kaew’s Aranyaprathet district which borders Cambodia.
Three policemen were found to be involved in Yingluck’s escape, including Pol Colonel Chairit Anurit, who has confessed to driving the former PM and her secretary on that day.
Chairit yesterday submitted additional documents to police on the use of the Toyota Camry sedan, which was not registered in the Department of Land Transport’s system.
Chairit’s documents, together with DNA samples taken from the Camry and those found on Yingluck’s belongings, will be crucial evidence in the case, said deputy Metropolitan police commissioner Pol Maj-General Panurat Lakboon yesterday.
The DNA result should be available in a day or two, said Panurat, who also leads a fact-finding committee into Chairit’s involvement in the case.
If Chairit is found guilty of committing a criminal offence, the case would proceed to the National Anti-Corruption Commission.
If he is found to have committed a lesser disciplinary offence, the case would be forwarded to the Metropolitan Division 5, where Chairit had served as a deputy commissioner.
Source: The Nation
