Ousted Thai PM Yingluck Rejects Charge of Negligence on Graft
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra spoke to the media on Friday for the first time since her government was ousted in a May coup, rejecting charges she was negligent in stemming corruption.
Yingluck is the younger sister of another deposed prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, whose nearly 10-year struggle for power with the royalist establishment has subverted stability and divided a country once seen as a surging economic "tiger".
Yingluck was an executive in a Shinawatra family company before she became Thailand's first woman prime minister in 2011, swept to power by the self-exiled Thaksin's legions of loyal voters among the urban and rural poor.
The National Anti-Corruption Committee said on Thursday it would press dereliction of duty charges against Yingluck, saying a rice-buying scheme run by her government had incurred billions of dollars in losses which she had failed to stem.
The rice scheme, which paid farmers way above market rates for their harvest, was at the heart of her administration's populist policies and was widely seen by critics as a blatant bid to lock-in votes in the countryside.
In addition to the huge financial losses, the scheme left Thailand with rice stock piles that it has struggled to offload, according to Reuters.
Speaking to the media for the first time since a court forced her from office for abuse of power just days before the May 22 coup, Yingluck accused the anti-corruption agency of preventing her from defending herself properly.
"I tried to submit (more) evidence but the NACC refused to accept it," a defiant Yingluck said in a statement delivered at a Bangkok hotel owned by her family. "Blaming rice quality and the disappearance of rice on me is not right."
If the case is taken up by the courts and she is found guilty, Yingluck, 47, could face time in jail.
