ousted thai pm yingluck sentenced in absentia
Last Updated : GMT 09:07:40
Egypt Today, egypt today
Egypt Today, egypt today
Last Updated : GMT 09:07:40
Egypt Today, egypt today

To 5 years for negligence

Ousted Thai PM Yingluck sentenced in absentia

Egypt Today, egypt today

Egypt Today, egypt today Ousted Thai PM Yingluck sentenced in absentia

Thailand's top court on Wednesday sentenced ousted
Bangkok - AFP

Thailand's top court on Wednesday sentenced ousted premier Yingluck Shinawatra in absentia to five years in prison for criminal negligence, a verdict that likely ends the political career of a popular leader who fled the junta-run kingdom last month.

Yingluck's administration was toppled in a 2014 coup and she was later put on trial for failing to stop corruption and losses in her government's rice subsidy scheme, which the court said cost the country billions of dollars.

She pleaded innocent and accused the ruling junta of a political witch-hunt.

But the Supreme Court in Bangkok deemed her guilty, saying she failed to stop graft and losses in the rice programme.

"The court has sentenced her to five years in prison and the court also unanimously agreed that the sentence will not be suspended," a judge said.

The verdict, which makes Yingluck's return to the kingdom increasingly unlikely, said the leader was aware of corrupt deals made by members of her administration but did nothing to stop them.

She "should have designated reasonable and effective regulations that could concretely prevent loss from the beginning of the programme," the verdict said, adding that the policy cost Thailand nearly $10 billion in losses.

After attending dozens of hearings in a trial that lasted more than one year, Yingluck failed to turn up for a ruling originally scheduled for August 25 -- a day of high drama that left the kingdom dumbfounded.

The 50-year-old, who still has the right to appeal, has not appeared in public since pulling the vanishing act.

Her once active social media accounts have also gone silent.

But there are widespread reports she joined her billionaire brother Thaksin, a former prime minister ousted in a 2006 coup, in Dubai.

Thaksin has kept a home in the city since he too fled Thailand in 2008 to avoid jail for a corruption conviction.

- Coups and court rulings -

While the Shinawatra clan has dominated electoral politics, their governments have been repeatedly knocked down by coups and court rulings backed by elites, triggering rounds of rival protests
The Shinawatra siblings lie at the centre of a political battle that has gnawed at Thailand for more than a decade.

The clan first emerged on the political scene in 2001 when Thaksin took office and secured the loyalty of the rural poor with groundbreaking welfare schemes.

Shinawatra-backed parties have dominated electoral politics ever since, inflaming Bangkok's military-allied elite.

Unable to beat the Shinawatras at the polls, their rivals have turned to court rulings and coups to repeatedly knock their governments from power.

Repeated rounds of rival protests have ensued, often spilling into bloodshed.

Analysts say the latest coup, followed by Yingluck's trial, was part of the ruling junta's effort to expunge her clan from politics for good.

The guilty verdict may not rub out the Shinawatras' influence altogether but it spells "the end of Yingluck's political career," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a politics expert at Chulalongkorn University.

It also sends a warning sign to would-be successors who might try and challenge the dominance of the military and its allies in Bangkok's traditional aristocracy.

"This is the first time that a Thai prime minister is sentenced to jail for a policy from an election campaign," said Thitinan, calling it "a tough and tricky standard for future Thai prime ministers".

- Where is Yingluck? -

Analysts say Yingluck most likely cut a deal with the military leaders, who would have been eager to see off a popular politician poised to become a martyr for the kingdom's moribund democracy movement
Thailand's junta leaders deny having any prior knowledge of Yingluck's plan to escape.

But many inside the kingdom are unconvinced, given the junta's tight security net and round-the-clock surveillance of the former leader during the course of the trial.

Analysts say Yingluck most likely cut a deal with the military leaders, who would have been eager to see off a popular politician poised to become a martyr for the kingdom's moribund democracy movement.

"By getting Yingluck out of Thailand, the military gets rid of a potential thorn in their side who could become a martyr if jailed, or a powerful politician again if she is not," said Paul Chambers, an expert on Thai politics.

On the eve of the verdict junta chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha declared his "spies" had informed him of Yingluck's whereabouts, but said he would not reveal her location until after the judgement was delivered.

The generals have promised an eventual return to democracy but the date for elections keeps slipping, as they extend their clampdown on dissent.

Even if a poll is eventually held, it will be organised under a new junta-drafted charter that significantly curbs the power of elected politicians and enshrines the military's oversight of any future government for the next 20 years.

egypttoday
egypttoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

ousted thai pm yingluck sentenced in absentia ousted thai pm yingluck sentenced in absentia



GMT 10:42 2017 Sunday ,20 August

Jordan king condemns Barcelona attack

GMT 06:26 2015 Saturday ,12 December

Saudi holds first ever election open to women

GMT 16:32 2018 Wednesday ,24 October

Kremlin comments on US decision to quit INF treaty

GMT 06:10 2015 Tuesday ,27 January

Drone targets 'Qaeda' in crisis-hit Yemen

GMT 12:58 2013 Monday ,16 September

Somali activist opens \'Desert Flower\'

GMT 06:53 2011 Wednesday ,06 July

Dubai Airport expansion plan endorsed

GMT 07:20 2011 Thursday ,16 June

Sales of Samsung\'s TVs top 2 mln in 3 months

GMT 18:16 2012 Wednesday ,18 April

Bashir threatens overthrow of S Sudan govt

GMT 17:50 2014 Sunday ,14 September

3 Pakistani soldiers killed in rocket attack

GMT 12:23 2017 Friday ,17 March

S&P cuts troubled Toshiba's credit rating

GMT 05:01 2017 Friday ,05 May

Arab Media Forum begins in Dubai

GMT 02:38 2017 Wednesday ,01 February

Of school kitchens and a ‘healthy’

GMT 07:22 2017 Thursday ,20 July

Tunisian efforts to eliminate corruption

GMT 07:57 2017 Wednesday ,08 November

A year on, NRIs debate effects of note ban

GMT 06:37 2012 Monday ,20 February

The vision of a new Arab president

GMT 08:24 2018 Thursday ,04 January

The literary canary in India's coalmine

GMT 00:42 2016 Monday ,21 November

36 killed in Syria's Aleppo clashes, bombing

GMT 08:31 2017 Thursday ,06 July

Qatar’s response negative

GMT 19:03 2012 Thursday ,26 January

Residents alerted as cold spell continues in UAE

GMT 01:52 2014 Thursday ,19 June

Investors pour $1m in app that just says 'Yo'

GMT 14:30 2013 Sunday ,28 July

Iraq, US reach deal on stolen artefacts
 
 Egypt Today Facebook,egypt today facebook  Egypt Today Twitter,egypt today twitter Egypt Today Rss,egypt today rss  Egypt Today Youtube,egypt today youtube  Egypt Today Youtube,egypt today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday
egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday
egypttoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
egypttoday, Egypttoday, Egypttoday