Ex-PM seeks injunction to halt asset sale

Former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra has sought an Administrative Court injunction order to bar the government from selling her confiscated assets to compensate for losses incurred by her government’s rice-pledging scheme.

Lawyer Noppadol Laothong yesterday represented Yingluck in submitting a petition to the court asking it to suspend the plan by the Legal Execution Department (LED) to auction her assets, seized previously by the department.

They include Yingluck’s house in Bung Kum district estimated to be worth 110 million baht.

This is the third petition Yingluck filed to the court against the LED’s move on her seized assets.

In the first two petitions Yingluck opposed the move to seize her assets, claiming it was an unlawful order. The court, however, dismissed the petitions.

The house is among 30 assets of hers which the LED has confiscated under the government’s administrative order forcing her to pay 35 billion baht compensation for losses under the rice scheme.

Mr Noppadol yesterday likened the seizure and planned sale of the assets, especially the house, to an execution carried out before a court actually rules that a person is found guilty.

“What will happen if the court later acquits Yingluck and how would the concerned parties compensate her after not only her assets have been damaged but also the good reputation of her and her family?” he asked.

The Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions had only ruled that fraud occurred under the rice-pledging scheme during the process of implementing the policy, not during the process of creating the policy, he said.

While there still is no ruling clearly specifying the infringement liability of Yingluck at this point, the administrative order to seize her assets and sell them by means of auction to find money to compensate for the project’s losses doesn’t seem legitimate, Mr Noppadol said.

“It’s unusual that the special power of the prime minister under Section 44 was exercised to appoint the LED to execute the administrative order,” he said.