Passports of ousted Thai PM revoked
Thailand has revoked the passports of ousted premier Yingluck Shinawatra, who has yet to be seen in public since she slipped out of the country before the verdict in her negligence trial, officials said yesterday.
The former prime minister, whose elected government was toppled in a 2014 coup, has not been seen or heard from since she stunned the kingdom by failing to turn up for the Supreme Court verdict in late August.
She was later sentenced to five years in prison in absentia for failing to stop graft in a government rice policy -- a case lambasted by her supporters as part of a broader junta effort to drive the ex-premier's family out of politics, reported AFP.
"All of Yingluck's passports have been revoked now," Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai told reporters yesterday.
Yingluck had four Thai passports, two personal and two diplomatic, according to authorities.
Yingluck's elder brother Thaksin, who was ousted as prime minister in a 2006 coup, has been living in self-exile for years to avoid a graft conviction.
Meanwhile, Thailand's military government yesterday said it will not yet lift a ban on political activity, despite a general election scheduled for next year.
The ban on political party gatherings has been in place since the military seized power in a 2014 coup but there have been growing calls from all political groups to end the ban, reported Reuters. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha cited persistent political divisions and mud-slinging as reasons why the ban should stay.
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