Police have searched the residences of fugitive former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her close aide in Bangkok on Thursday to look for clues about her escape from a five-year jail sentence relating to corruption in her rice-pledging scheme.
Searched for a few hours first in the afternoon was Yingluck's residence on Soi Yothin Pattana 3 in Bung Kum district.
Leading the searches, deputy national police chief Srivara Ransibhramanakul said the action responded to the testimonies of three police officers suspected of assisting in Yingluck's escape. Twenty-five police and military officers searched Yingluck's house and collected her DNA samples to see if they match the evidence found in the Toyota Camry car she reportedly used to escape.
In the evening, authorities searched Room No.96 on the seventh floor of JW Boulevard condominium in Wang Thong Lang district. It was the residence of Yingluck's close aide Nilubol Klinprathum. Samples were also collected for DNA tests to identify people involved in Yingluck's escape.
Pol Gen Srivara said police needed the DNA samples of the close aide because they found the DNA of more than two people in the car.
According to him, authorities collected 17 items from Yingluck's house, mostly her personal belongings.
A source said officials collected combs, clothes and hair of Yingluck and the results of DNA comparison should be known in a week.
Yingluck had been at large shortly before Aug 25 when the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions was originally scheduled to deliver the ruling on her rice-pledging case.
Her absence caused the court to postpone the announcement to Wednesday when the five-year term was read for her failure to stop fake and corrupt government-to-government sales of rice from the programme.
