An image showing the names, details of checked baggage and seating arrangements of Thaksin Shinawatra's two daughters before boarding a Thai Airways International plane to England has gone viral, drawing an angry reaction from the ex-premier’s youngest daughter.
The photo, believed to have been taken with a smartphone, began to circulate on Facebook and other channels on Thursday evening, a few hours after Pinthongta and Paethongtan reportedly left Suvarnabhumi airport, according to a Thai Rath report.
In addition to the passengers' names, the photograph clearly showed details of Pinthongta's and Paethongtan’s flight number, seat allocation, departure time and destination, London Heathrow.
It also indicates Pinthongta and Paethongtan took as many as eight suitcases with them, raising speculation that the siblings might have left Thailand to seek refuge in England.
A rumour has been flying around since last week that Thaksin’s family members had planned to go overseas, possibly to England, to escape mounting pressure from Thaksin and Ms Yingluck’s political opponents.
On Friday, Paethongtan, or Ung-ing, denied the asylum rumour and described the unknown THAI staffer who revealed her and her sister’s information to the public as "a man without a code of ethics", Thai Rath reported.
On her @ingshin21 Instagram account, Paethongtan posted a photo of herself in a coffee shop somewhere in England and wrote: "I’ve learned that there was someone without the code of ethics revealing my information. Not here to seek asylum but to work for six days.”
She also said there were four people in her group travelling to England, not just her and her sister, proving that the trip was not an attempt to take a refuge from Thailand's political turmoil. "The haters always make up stories to slander us, but I don’t care about them. They will stop once they get tired," she added.
An image showing the names, details of checked baggage and seating arrangements of Thaksin Shinawatra's two daughters before boarding a Thai Airways International plane to England has gone viral, prompting outrage from the ex-premier’s youngest daughter Paethongtan Shinawatra who condemned the leak via her Instagram account. (Photo taken from Instagram)