Ex-Thai PM vows to fight $1 bn fine

BANGKOK: Ousted Thai premier Yingluck Shinawatra said on Friday she would fight a junta order demanding she personally pay nearly $1 billion in compensation for a rice policy prosecutors say was riddled with graft.

Yingluck, Thailand’s first female premier, was removed from office by a court days before the army seized power in a 2014 coup. She has since been tangled in a web of legal cases that she says are politically motivated, including a criminal negligence trial over the rice policy that could see her jailed for up to 10 years.

Yingluck insists the rice scheme was a measure to help the poor in Thailand’s rural heartlands.