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Thai court voids order for former PM Yingluck Shinawatra to pay US$1.1 billion for losses
- The finance ministry had sought compensation in 2016 for a money-losing rice farming subsidy programme launched by the former prime minister’s administration
- The court said Yingluck was not responsible for the alleged corruption because it was carried out by other officials
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A court in Thailand on Friday annulled a 2016 order by the country’s finance ministry for former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra to pay 35.7 billion baht (US$1.1 billion) in compensation for losses incurred by a money-losing rice farming subsidy programme that her 2011-2014 administration launched.
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The country’s Central Administrative Court said the 2016 payment order lacked a legal basis since Yingluck was not responsible for the alleged corruption because it was carried out operationally by other officials. The court said the finance ministry failed to prove Yingluck was directly responsible for the financial losses.
Yingluck, whose government was ousted in a 2014 coup, was sentenced in absentia to five years’ in prison in 2017 for negligence in instituting the subsidy programme. She fled Thailand before the verdict and called the case politically motivated.
The rice subsidy programme was a flagship policy that helped Yingluck’s Pheu Thai Party win the country’s 2011 general election.
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Under the programme, the government paid farmers about 50 per cent more than they would have received on the global market, with the intention of driving up prices by warehousing the grain.
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