The Thai Supreme Court yesterday sentenced former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra in absentia to five years in prison for mismanaging a rice subsidy scheme that cost the country billions of US dollars.
Yingluck fled abroad 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 have 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.
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Yingluck had faced up to 10 years in prison for negligence over the costly scheme that had helped get her elected in 2011.
Yingluck had pleaded innocent and had accused the military government of political persecution.
Nine judges voted unanimously to find Yingluck guilty in a verdict reading that took four hours, 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.
“The accused knew that the government-to-government rice contract was unlawful, but did not prevent it ... which is a manner of seeking unlawful gains. Therefore, the action of the accused is considered negligence of duty,” it said.
A former commerce minister last month was jailed for 42 years for falsifying government-to-government rice deals in connection with the subsidy scheme.
Norrawit Larlaeng, a lawyer for Yingluck, told reporters outside the court that an appeal was being discussed.
Under the rice scheme, Yingluck’s government bought rice from farmers at above-market prices, leading to stockpiles of the grain and distorted global prices of the commodity.
Losses amounted to US$8 billion, the military government said.
Three members of Yingluck’s Puea Thai Party declined to comment after the court gave its verdict.
Dozens of supporters had gathered outside the court to hear the verdict yesterday.
That was far fewer than on Aug. 25, when the court was originally scheduled to deliver its verdict, only to find out that Yingluck had fled the country.
Though her whereabouts has not been disclosed by either her aides or the junta, Reuters reported last month that she had fled to Dubai where Thaksin has a home and lives in self-imposed exile to avoid a 2008 jail sentence for corruption.
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