A key Pheu Thai party member Monday “guaranteed” that, if allowed to travel overseas, former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra would return for a looming court fight over the rice-pledging scheme.
"Yingluck just wanted to go to Hong Kong for a couple of days," Surapong Tovichakchaikul said. "She planned to have some congee there and then go back. She has no plans to escape,"
Ms Yingluck's plan to visit Hong Kong Sunday was blocked by the National Council for Peace and Order, which cited the in-progress indictment process against her for dereliction of duty in the rice programme. She had planned to meet her brother, Thaksin, in Hong Kong.
Mr Surapong criticised the NCPO's decision, saying that because state prosecutors have not forwarded the case to court, the former prime minister's freedom of travel should not be curbed.
The failed meeting of Ms Yingluck and her brother would stir no trouble to Thailand, he added.
Ms Yingluck will fight the upcoming case in the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Political Office Holders if the Office of the Attorney-General indicts her.
Thaksin was sentenced to two years in jail in 2008 by the court on abusing authority to help his wife at the time, Khunying Potjaman, to clinch a land deal in Ratchadaphisek area.
He left Bangkok for Beijing to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics before the verdict was handed down and has lived in exile since then.