Thailand: Court Clears Ex-PM Yingluck In Negligence Case

Thailand’s Supreme Court has cleared self-exiled former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra of negligence on Monday, in a case dating back to her time in office in 2013.

Yingluck, a prominent member of the influential Shinawatra family, has been living overseas for the past six years to avoid jail for a previous conviction for negligence handed down after her government’s ousting in a 2014 military coup.

The court’s unanimous decision is the latest favourable outcome for the dominant Shinawatra family, whose party Pheu Thai is currently in government. Its billionaire figurehead, Thaksin Shinawatra, was recently released from detention on parole on a commuted sentence.

The court had yet to issue a statement on the ruling.

Yingluck had been convicted in absentia previously for negligence and sentenced to five years in prison sentence over a government rice pledging scheme that cost billions of dollars of losses to the State.

REUTERS