Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai confirmed on Tuesday that fugitive former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra has been in London since September and possibly carries a foreign passport as her Thai passports were revoked.
Mr Don said the British Foreign Secretary had given him the information. However, he had no information as to Yingluck's status in the UK or whether she had applied for asylum or a visa there.
Mr Don said Yingluck may have used a passport issued by another country to enter the UK, because all four of her Thai passports were officially revoked.
Asked if the government will try to speed up the process of Yingluck's extradition to Thailand to face justice, Mr Don said the matter will be considered from every angle.
He refused to comment when asked if the government would be able to oppose any request for asylum in the UK. He said only that Yingluck being in the UK does not affect Thai-UK relations.
A fresh photo said to be of Yingluck and a friend, taken in London during the New Year period, went viral early last week. It followed an earlier photo of a woman resembling Yingluck which surfaced late last month and was reported to have been taken on Dec 26 at Westfield Shopping Centre in West London.
The latest picture supposedly shows the ex-premier with a Thai woman outside Harrod's in London. National police chief Pol Gen Srivara Ransibraham said the photo was probably authentic.
Yingluck disappeared shortly before Aug 25 when the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions was scheduled to deliver judgement in her rice-pledging scheme corruption trial.
In her absence the court postponed the ruling to Sept 27, when it handed Yingluck a five-year jail term for failure to stop false and corrupt government-to-government sales of rice from the rice programme even though she had been told of the irregularities. It also issued a fresh warrant for her arrest.
