Black day in Thailand

Fugitive former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra has been sentenced to a five-year jail term. 

The Supreme Court took almost four hours on Wednesday to read the verdict on Yingluck’s alleged negligence in her government’s rice-pledging scheme.

#Thailand - PM denies court interference.

Former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra is surrounded by supporters as she arrives at the Supreme Court yesterday to make her closing statement in the case linked to her government’s controversial rice-pledging scheme.

‘No concern’ about mobilization ahead of August 25 verdict.

PRIME MINISTER General Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday rejected allegations by former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, insisting that he had never interfered in the judicial process as she alleged during her closing remarks to the Supreme Court yesterday. 

Yingluck earlier said in court that junta chief Prayut, who staged a coup to topple her government three years ago, had implied in a recent statement that she was guilty in the case relating to her government’s rice-pledging scheme, otherwise she would never have been brought to court. 

Prayut said yesterday the junta government had only provided testimony as witnesses for the plaintiff, which is the government itself.

“I never led [the decision] of the court. I don’t have to order them,” the premier said. “The judicial system is always independent. They have inspected the issues based on facts and they’ve finished.”

Yingluck is accused of negligence and malfeasance for allegedly ignoring corruption related to the rice-pledging scheme conducted while she was in office, despite a warning from the Office of the Auditor-General. 

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