Former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra made her first public comment on social media since fleeing the country last August during a criminal negligence trial that ultimately sentenced her to 5 years in prison.
Yingluck, whose elected government was overthrown in 2014 by army generals who still control Thailand, has denied the accusations that she ran a rice purchasing program that resulted in multi-billion dollar losses.
“This is my first birthday that I spent abroad,” Yingluck wrote on her official Facebook page, thanking Thais on her 51st birthday. “I would like to thank the Thai people for still thinking about me.”
She also updated photos on her official Twitter and Instagram accounts.
The Shinawatra family stays influential in Thai politics despite attempts by the military to suppress their influence.
Yingluck fled the country last August, just days before the Supreme Court ruled in her case. Sources in her Puea Thai party say she fled to London via Dubai, where her brother, billionaire former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has a house.
Parties allied together with her brother have won every election since 2001 by appealing to poorer voters.
Thaksin, in office from 2001 until he was overthrown in a coup in 2006, has made many enemies amongst Bangkok’s elite, who accuse him of nepotism and corruption.
In 2015, Yingluck was banned from politics for five years by the junta.
Since fleeing Thailand last yr, she has appeared alongside Thaksin, notably in China, Japan, Singapore and the United States.
Thaksin also lives in self-imposed exile after fleeing a 2008 corruption conviction that he believes was politically motivated.
