Thailand former premier to stand trial: Supreme Court
The Thai Supreme Court has ruled that the country’s former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra must stand trial on charges of negligence over a controversial rice subsidy program.
"The panel (of judges) has decided that this case falls within our authority... We accept this case," said judge Veeraphol Tangsuwan at Bangkok's Supreme Court on Thursday.
The Judge further noted that that the first hearing will be held later in the day.
On February 19, Shinawatra was indicted for her involvement in the rice subsidy scheme, which reportedly cost the country billions of dollars.
"Today, we have indicted former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra... for dereliction of duty” in relation to the rice scheme, said Chutichai Sakhakorn, the director-general of the special litigation department at Thailand’s Office of the Attorney General.
Accordingly, 20 boxes of documents related to the case were submitted to the Supreme Court’s criminal division for politicians by Prosecutors from the Office of the Attorney General.
Shinawatra is charged with having a role in the management of a rice subsidy program that paid farmers up to 50 percent above market rates for the grain. The scheme was criticized for inflicting damage on Thai finances, battering the rice industry, ruining Thailand’s position as a rice exporter and fostering massive corruption. Her opponents accused her of using the scheme to shore up her rural electoral base.
Yingluck did not attend the indictment session in person.
According to prosecutors, she would face up to ten years in prison if found guilty of the charges.
The former premier was impeached and removed from office on May 7, 2014, for assigning a family member to a senior government post.
The government was then overthrown by a military coup on May 22.
Yingluck has denied all the charges against her.
Thailand has been the scene of a political crisis since the 2006 military coup that deposed Yingluck’s elder brother Thaksin Shinawatra, a billionaire tycoon-turned-populist politician, who clashed with the then royalist establishment.
IA/HMV
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