Last week, fugitive former Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was sentenced in Thailand to five years in prison on bribery charges, officially received Serbian citizenship.
The Serbian state news agency "Tanjug" reported on Thursday that the Serbian government has granted her citizenship "because it may be in Serbia's interest". Serbian officials have not commented on the reason for this decision.
A government decree granting her citizenship was published in June in the official Serbian newspaper, reports Koha.net.
With the Serbian passport, Shinawatra can travel without a visa to 100 countries around the world, including most European Union countries.
She fled Thailand in 2017, before being convicted of running a rice subsidy scheme that cost Thailand billions of dollars. She and her supporters say the case was politically motivated.
She fled justice and reportedly went to London via Dubai, where her billionaire brother, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra lives, who also fled Thailand, also facing corruption charges, reports The Associated Press. .
They were both elected prime ministers but were ousted by military coups - Thaksin in 2006 and Yingluck in 2014. Although they live in exile, both enjoy significant support in rural and poorer parts of Thailand.
also
Convicted of corruption, the former prime minister of Thailand receives Serbian citizenship
Thaksin has the citizenship of another Balkan country, Montenegro, which he received in 2009.
Thailand's foreign ministry had no comment Friday on the reports about the country's former prime minister.
Thai Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Busadee Santipitaks said on Friday that she was unable to comment on the reports from Serbia, and that the Serbian Foreign Ministry had not contacted its counterpart in Thailand.
