Moves on Yingluck case known Thursday

However, NACC member Vicha Mahakun said he did not know if the Office of the Attorney General would decide to pursue the case through the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Offices.

Vicha said that the OAG had called the urgent meeting. The NACC has suggested it will pursue the case itself if the OAG refuses to take it.

Representatives from the NACC and the OAG have met four times to discuss the matter but failed to reach a conclusion.  Public prosecutors suggested that the NACC question more witnesses, particularly those requested by Yingluck’s lawyers, but the anti-graft agency said it had a strong case against the ex-PM. The NACC has accused Yingluck of negligence leading to massive state losses – in excess of Bt500 billion – from her government’s scrapped rice price-pledging scheme.

Vicha said the NACC was confident its case was complete.  “If we were not confident, we would not have sent our secretary-general, Sansern Poljieak, to head the NACC’s team in this case’s joint working group. This is unprecedented,” he said.

He expected the NACC subcommittee investigating former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom over alleged irregularities in a government-to-government rice deal to be completed no later than next week. 

NACC members would decide later whether to indict Boonsong, he said.

Democrat Party politician Warong Dechgitvigrom has countered a claim that Yingluck should not be held responsible. Yingluck’s lawyer and some Cabinet members from her government said warehouse owners and rice surveyors should be held responsible for losses caused to the rice stored in government stockpiles. 

But Warong said that as head of the government, Yingluck should be held responsible.