The Star Malaysia

One judge in Yingluck case ruled her ‘not guilty’

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BANGKOK: Pison Pirun, a judge in the nine-member Supreme Court panel that ruled in the case over the rice-pledging scheme against ex-PM Yingluck Shinawatra case, was the only judge to rule her not guilty on the grounds that “she lacked the intention to cause loss or seek advantage she was not entitled to”.

His ruling was circulated on Wednesday, three weeks after the panel had read the majority verdict against Yingluck in absentia following her flight from the country.

In his verdict dated Sept 27, the judge explained that the AttorneyGe­neral had prosecuted Yingluck for negligence or misconduct.

However, according to the law, the offence must be accompanie­d also by ill intention, or ill intention to cause loss to others.

The act of negligence alone did not count as an offence in the laws cited by the Attorney-General, Pison pointed out.

Although the prosecutor had proved the rice-pledging scheme was plagued with corruption, there was no evidence that Yingluck had benefited from it, Pison wrote.

In the fake government-to-government rice deals case, although Apichart Chansakulp­orn, better known as “Sia Piang”, had been ruled guilty, it had not been proved that Yingluck had facilitate­d the deals either, Pison wrote.

A photograph showing Sia Piang and Yingluck’s brother Thaksin Shinawatra in Hong Kong was not sufficient to prove that she was close to him and could have helped him gain advantage in the deals, Pison wrote.

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