Story highlights Arrest warrant issued for former Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra

She faced up to 10 years in prison over rice subsidy scheme

Bangkok, Thailand (CNN) Thailand's former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has fled the country as a court was about to deliver a verdict in a two-year trial over agricultural subsidies, a source close to her family says.

The source declined to say where she had gone, but Thailand's top immigration official said there were no records of Yingluck having left through proper channels.

Yingluck failed to show up to hear the verdict being delivered. Her lawyer said she was ill but the court rejected the explanation and Thailand's Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant.

The lawyer, Norawit Larleang, told CNN that he didn't know whether the former prime minister was in Thailand or had left.

Yingluck -- ousted by a military coup in 2014 -- had been barred from leaving Thailand without court approval since 2015, when her trial started.

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