Former Thai PM banned from traveling abroad at start of trial
Ousted former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra prepares to deliver her statement at the National Legislative Assembly meeting in Bangkok January 22, 2015. REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom/FileReuters
Former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra was banned from traveling overseas on Tuesday at the start of her trial on negligence charges, the latest in a slew of cases her supporters say are part of an attempt to tighten the junta\’s grip on power.
Yingluck was forced from office a year ago after Thailand\’s Constitutional Court found her guilty of abuse of power. Weeks later, the military staged a coup that removed the remnants of her government.
She is accused of dereliction of duty for her role in a multi-billion dollar rice subsidy scheme that anti-corruption authorities alleged was plagued with graft.
Yingluck, who denies the charges against her, faces up to 10 years in prison if she is found guilty. She has accused her enemies of conducting a witch-hunt against her in order to handicap her powerful family.
Around 200 supporters showed up outside the court on Tuesday. Some shouted: "The people\’s prime minister! Yingluck is the people\’s prime minister! You must fight on!"
The court banned her from traveling overseas, and agreed bail terms of 30 million baht ($899,280). The next hearing is set for July 21.
The case against Yingluck is the latest twist in a long-running political saga that includes more than a decade of on-off violence that has pitted supporters of Yingluck and her brother Thaksin, himself a former prime minister, against the royalist-military establishment that sees the Shinawatras as a threat and reviles their populist policies.
Speaking on the sidelines of a conference in Seoul on Tuesday, Thaksin said he had no plans to mobilize his "Red Shirt" supporters but called the first year of the junta government which came to power in a coup "not so impressive".
"I think democracy will prevail sooner or later, but we have to be patient, and we have to be peaceful," he said. "Don’t resort to any kind of violence."
Thaksin lives abroad to avoid a jail sentence handed down for graft in 2008.
Yingluck was banned from politics in January when a military-appointed legislature found her guilty over her role in overseeing the disastrous rice subsidy scheme.
The scheme paid farmers above market prices for their rice and cost state coffers billions of dollars in losses.
SOURCE: REUTERS
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