Second delay sought in rice deal appeal

Kittinan Thatpramuk, chief of the office’s Investigation Department, and also a member of the office’s panel responsible for the case, said prosecutors filed the request to the court because they had not yet finished reviewing the court verdict from August 25. 
They asked to court to extend the deadline period for another 30 days and would wait for its approval. The first deadline finishes on October 25, Kittinan said.
The Supreme Court on August 25 sentenced former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom, and 19 others to jail terms of 24-48 years for their leading roles in executing fake government-to-government (G-to-G) rice deals, part of the previous Yingluck government’s rice-pledging scheme, causing the government to lose Bt16.9-billion. 
Boonsong was sentenced to 42 years, while former deputy commerce minister Phumi Saraphol was given a 36-year jail term for approving four G-to-G rice export deals with China which turned out to be bogus, causing massive losses for taxpayers.
A former chief of the Department of Foreign Trade at the Commerce Ministry, Manas Soiploy, as well as other senior officials responsible for international rice trading, were also sentenced to lengthy jail terms as was Apichart Jansakulporn, owner of the rice trading firm Siam Indiga Co. 
Yingluck herself was accused of negligence of duty while implementing the programme and later sentenced to jail for five years without suspension. She had already fled the country when her sentenced was handed down.

Request filed
The new charter allows both plaintiffs and defendants to be able to file an appeal and the prosecutors have acted in accordance with the law.
The defendants’ lawyers, meanwhile, said |they had already filed a request for the postponement of the appeal deadline for a second time as |they, too had not yet finished drafting their new appeal. 
However, the legal team expects to be able to file the appeal on behalf of the defendants next month, according to lead lawyer Thanakorn Waekwaree.