Former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra at the court on May 19. (Photo: Kyodo/VNA)Former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on August 31 appeared before the Supreme Court, where she is being tried for mismanaging a rice subsidy scheme that cost the country billions of US dollars.
After the court reviewed lists of evidence and witnesses in the case, Yingluck told reporters that she had submitted lists of documents and about 70 witnesses for her defence.
Prosecutors previously provided an evidence dossier of 60,000 pages and 23 additional witnesses against her in the case. The next hearing is scheduled for October.
The Thai National Anti-Corruption Commission accused Yingluck of “dereliction of duty” for the mismanagement of the rice-pledging scheme in July last year. Meanwhile, the former PM has maintained her innocence, saying she implemented the rice subsidy programme to improve the living standards of the farmers and to “promote fairness in the market mechanism” during her time in office from August 2011 to May 2014.
However, critics said the programme purchased farmers’ rice at unnecessarily high prices, causing an estimated 16-billion-USD in losses and leaving Thailand with an excessive rice stockpile.
The parliament impeached her and banned her from politics for five years in January. If found guilty, she could be jailed for up to 10 years for negligence.-VNA
