In a desperate effort to avoid up to 10 years in prison, the former prime minister of Thailand has fled to Dubai.
Yingluck Shinawatra, who served as Thailand's first female head of government from 2011 to 2014, had been charged with negligence in a rice subsidy scheme, which cost her country billions of dollars, according to Reuters.
While Shinawatra has denied any wrongdoing, she fled the country ahead of her trial's verdict, somehow escaping despite being subject to heavy surveillance and tight security.
"We heard that she went to Cambodia and then Singapore, from where she flew to Dubai. She has arrived safely and is there now," a senior member of Shinawatra's Pheu Thai Party said.
Shinawatra will join her brother in the emirate
Police sources have said they have no record of the ex-prime minister's departure from the country. Authorities first realized Shinawatra was missing when she neglected to show up at court on Friday.
An arrest warrant has since been issued, and immigration police say Shinawatra will be arrested immediately, if found.
Shinawatra's brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, who also previously served as Thailand's prime minister, is already living in self-imposed exile in Dubai. He fled his country in similar fashion back in 2008 to avoid a prison sentence for corruption.
How could Shinawatra escape?
Since Shinawatra was the highest-profile criminal defendant in Thailand, some may find it hard to believe that she could escape so easily to the United Arab Emirates.
Jonathan Head from BBC News in Bangkok said that some in Thailand's military definitely wanted her to escape.
"It is a poorly-concealed secret that some in the military government would have been happy to see her leave the country before the verdict," Head said.
"Had she been convicted and jailed, she could have been seen as a victim by her supporters. The government was nervous about their reaction. Acquitting her, though, would have been equally unacceptable to her hard-line opponents, many of them very influential," he continued.
"That would also have undermined the justification for the military coup which overthrew her government. So it is unlikely anyone tried to stop her leaving, or that they will try to get her back."
Other international leaders have eyed the UAE as an escape
The Shinawatras aren't the only international leaders that have seen the UAE as a good escape from problems back home.
The President of South Africa Jacob Zuma> has allegedly been considering a move to the UAE in the wake of a series of corruption scandals and cabinet sackings.
Leaked emails earlier this year showed Zuma suggesting he would make his home in the UAE. Last year, similar reports surfaced with the president's political rival saying Zuma would "seek asylum in Dubai because he doesn’t feel safe in his country."