Fugitive former Thai PM sentenced in absentia
THAILAND’S Supreme Court convicted and sentenced former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra in absentia yesterday to five years in jail for mismanaging a rice subsidy scheme that cost the country billions of dollars.
Yingluck fled overseas last month fearing that the military government, set up after a coup in 2014, would seek a harsh sentence.
For more than a decade, Thai politics has been dominated by a power struggle between Thailand’s traditional elite, including the army and affluent Bangkok-based upper classes, and the Shinawatra family, which includes Yingluck’s brother, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was also ousted by a coup.
Yingluck had faced up to 10 years in prison for negligence over the costly scheme that had helped get her elected in 2011.
She had pleaded innocent and accused the military government of political persecution.
Nine judges voted unanimously to find Yingluck guilty and a warrant was issued for her arrest.
The court said Yingluck knew that members of her administration had falsified government-to-government rice deals but did nothing to stop it.
“[This] is a manner of seeking unlawful gains. Therefore, the action of the accused is considered negligence of duty,” it said. A former commerce minister in her government was jailed for 42 years last month for falsifying government-to-government rice deals in connection with the subsidy scheme.
Under the rice scheme, Yingluck’s government bought rice from farmers at above-market prices, leading to stockpiles and distorting global prices.
Losses amounted to $8-billion (R108.3-billion), the military government has said.