Ex-Thailand premier not indicted

Thailand’s Office of the Attorney-General has refused to indict former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra for dereliction of duty, citing insufficient evidence.

The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) earlier found that Yingluck had been negligent in the management of a rice subsidy program that led to widespread corruption.

The NACC forwarded the case to the attorney-general for Yingluck’s indictment, but the office sent it back late Thursday, saying more supporting evidence was necessary.

Yingluck was impeached and removed from office on May 7 for assigning a family member to a senior government post.

The government was then overthrown by a military coup on May 22.

The rice subsidy, which paid farmers up to 50 percent above market rates for the grain, was criticized for punching a hole in Thai finances, battering the rice industry, and fostering massive corruption, with opponents accusing Yingluck of using it to shore up her rural electoral base.

Yingluck has always maintained her innocence and questioned whether the NACC investigation has met international standards.

Thailand has been the scene of a political crisis since the 2006 military coup that deposed Yingluck’s elder brother Thaksin Shinawatra, a billionaire tycoon-turned-populist politician, who clashed with the then royalist establishment.

HN/HJL