Thai court orders ex-PM to pay for rice scheme

A top Thai court yesterday ruled that former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra must pay more than $300 million compensation over a controversial rice subsidy scheme during her time in office.

The ruling is the latest round in a long-running legal battle over the rice scheme that has already seen Yingluck, aunt of current Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, given a prison sentence in absentia.

The Supreme Administrative Court yesterday overturned a lower court ruling cancelling a finance ministry order that Yingluck pay compensation over the scheme.

Yingluck, who was ousted in a military coup in 2014, was sentenced in absentia in 2017 to five years in jail for criminal negligence over the same scandal.

The finance ministry originally ordered Yingluck to pay 35.7 billion baht (nearly $1.1 billion) in compensation.

The Central Administrative Court then revoked the order, but the ministry appealed, leading to yesterday’s ruling by the higher court.

The court said yesterday that Yingluck had failed to respond to warnings by anti-graft bodies pointing to corruption in the rice scheme.

Her negligence caused losses to the finance ministry and she should pay damages of 10.028 billion baht ($300 million), the court said. Norawit Lalaeng, Yingluck’s lawyer, said they will discuss whether to request a new hearing.

Yingluck fled Thailand shortly before her jail sentence in 2017 and has lived in exile since. She said yesterday that the order to pay 10 billion baht was excessive. “Even if I repaid it my entire life, it would never be enough,” she said on social media. “I will continue to demand and fight for justice.”