The Serbian government has granted citizenship to Thailand’s former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra who fled her homeland in 2017 to avoid negligence charges, Reuters reports.

Shinawatra, 52, went to Dubai and joined her brother Thaksin, another former Thai prime minister who also fled in 2006 to avoid a prison sentence for corruption.

The government in Belgrade decided to grant Yingluck citizenship on June 27, citing a legal provision that “a foreign citizen can also be granted Serbian citizenship if that is in line with the country’s interests.” The Official Gazette notice about the decision was published in local media on Thursday, without further explanation.

Yingluck, whose family dominated Thai politics for more than 15 years, had pleaded innocent to charges related to rice-buying policies she implemented after taking over as the country’s first female premier in 2011.