Former Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra yesterday declared her innocence and asked for “kindness” from a court during her final statement in a criminal negligence trial that could land her in prison for 10 years if she is convicted.
The case centers around a rice subsidy that Thailand’s military government says she grossly mishandled. Yingluck’s bank accounts were frozen after an administrative ruling held her responsible for about US$1 billion in losses from the subsidy.
“I beg the court for kindness and please dismiss the charge,” Yingluck said in her closing statement, according to prepared remarks.
Photo: AFP
The verdict is to be issued on Aug. 25.
Yingluck’s supporters believe she is being persecuted by opponents of her brother, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup for alleged corruption and disrespect to the monarchy.
The telecommunications mogul has been in self-imposed exile since 2008 to escape a prison sentence for corruption.
His ouster set off sometimes-violent battles for power in Thailand, and supporters say the political establishment opposes Thaksin because his electoral popularity threatens their entrenched privileges.
Yingluck led the last elected government before being ousted as prime minister in 2014 when a court ruled that a personnel transfer involved nepotism. The army initiated a coup soon afterward and a military-led government has remained in power since.
Hundreds of Yingluck’s supporters outside the packed court shouted, “Prime minister, fight, fight!”
After she appeared in court late last month, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who led the 2014 coup, warned Yingluck’s supporters to tread carefully.
He said the government would not prevent people from gathering, but that “everyone must show restraint” and let the court decide the matter.
“What is being done to her now is not fair,” Prasong Kaewtongta, 51, said yesterday. “I’m giving her moral support.”
Rudeeporn Jantarasena, 46, said she came to support Yingluck “because of the good that the Shinawatra family has done.”
“They laid the foundations for the people. Be it issues involving poverty, issues that involve your job, they laid very good foundations for middle-class citizens,” she said.
The rice subsidy was a flagship policy that helped Yingluck’s party win the 2011 general election. It paid Thai farmers about 50 percent above what they would have received on the world market, but instead of driving up prices, the subsidy drove the world’s demand for rice to cheaper producers. It cost the government billions of dollars.
Prosecutors in the trial have argued Yingluck ignored warnings of corruption in the program.
In other developments, the Thai government yesterday denied involvement in the alleged disappearance of an outspoken monarchy critic from Laos after reports emerged he was abducted by a group of armed men.
Wuthipong Kachathamakul, better known by his nickname Ko Tee, is a firebrand self-styled militant leader of the anti-junta Red Shirt movement and a vocal critic of Thailand’s monarchy. He settled in Laos after the 2014 coup, from where he berated the junta in a series of videos and radio broadcasts.
Over the weekend reports emerged via supporters that Ko Tee was abducted by a group of Thai-speaking armed men from his home in Vientiane on Thursday last week.
The reports quoted his wife and a friend who said they were tied up, blindfolded, beaten and attacked with stun guns.
The claims have not been independently verified and reporters have yet to speak to Ko Tee’s wife or the friend to confirm their account.
However, Human Rights Watch yesterday said the reports “raised grave concerns for his [Ko Tee’s] safety” as they called on the Laotian authorities to investigate.
As local media coverage of the abduction intensified, Thai military authorities yesterday denied any involvement and accused Ko Tee’s network of spreading rumors.
“We have to investigate further as there are several reasons why he might just slip away to create news,” General Thawip Netniyom, secretary-general of National Security Council, told reporters.
Thai authorities had “monitored” Ko Tee and pushed for the communist authorities to extradite him, but “we haven’t implemented any other measures than that,” he said.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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