Ex-Thai premier indicted on criminal charges over rice scheme
Thailand’s former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has been indicted for her involvement in a controversial 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 on Thursday.
Accordingly, 20 boxes of documents related to the case were submitted to the Supreme Court’s criminal division for politicians.
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 case would be referred to the Supreme Court, which will decide whether or not to accept it on March 19.
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.
HJM/HJL/HMV
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