The Foreign Ministry will begin considering a police request to revoke former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra's passports after receiving it.
Busadee Santipitaks, spokesperson of the ministry, said on Saturday that it received the written request from the Royal Thai Police Office and concerned officials were handling the issue in line with passport regulations.
She acknowledged media reports that Yingluck arrived in Britain from Dubai to seek political asylum but did not comment on the issue. Earlier, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said the ministry had told him Yingluck was in Dubai.
Meanwhile, government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said on Saturday that the Foreign Ministry had been aware that Yingluck would head for Britain.
He also said the government was not concerned about the report that Yingluck was seeking political asylum because it was a personal issue but the government was focusing on its duty to bring the convict back to serve her sentence.
Rames Ratanachaweng, deputy spokesman of the Democrat Party, said on Saturday that the Foreign Ministry should quickly revoke Yingluck’s passports.
He also said the rice scheme case was not political but a criminal one concerning Yingluck’s failure to stop the rice sales.
Besides, the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions was a normal court, not a military court set up to handle any particular case, he said.
“The case is not political and cannot justify political asylum. It cannot be raised to allege any political persecution,” Mr Rames said.
Despite her previous assurance not to flee, Yingluck disappeared 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 loss-ridden rice-pledging case.
Her absence caused the court to postpone the announcement to Wednesday, when it handed down a five-year jail term for her failure to stop fake and corrupt government-to-government sales of rice from the rice programme even though she had been aware of the irregularities.
