NACC has 7 more cases awaiting ex-PM Yingluck
Former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s ordeal has started anew after the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders issued a warrant on Tuesday for her arrest after she failed to show up at the court’s reading of charges in a case filed by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC).
The NACC on January 28 filed a lawsuit against Yingluck Shinawatra, two newspapers, and three others over alleged corruption in the Thailand 2020 Roadshow project. The lawsuit alleged that from August 2013 to March 2014, Yingluck and the five other defendants had caused damages worth THB239.7 million to the country by approving the Thailand 2020 Roadshow to the two publications without properly inviting bids for the project.
According to a news source, besides the Thailand Roadshow case, the anti-graft agency still has seven more cases which it is preparing to file against Thailand’s first female prime minister, who is also a sister of former prime minister Thaksin.
They are:
1. The G2G rice deal case, in which Yingluck was accused of negligence that resulted in corruption in exporting of Thai rice.
2. Yingluck’s abuse of power in transferring National Security Council secretary-general Thawil Pliensri in 2011.
3. The disbursement of 1.9 billion baht compensation for people affected by political rallies between 2005 and 2010 approved by Yingluck and 34 other ministers.
4. Yingluck’s omission to punish then interior minister Charupong Ruangsuwan for participating in a political rally by the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, also known as the red shirt group, in February 2014.
5. Yingluck allowing the broadcast of the Muay Thai Warriors programme organised in Macao in 2012 via the National Broadcasting Services of Thailand (NBT) channel. The programme featured an opening speech by Thaksin, which was alleged to affect national security.
6. The allegation that Yingluck is unusual wealthy.
7. Her failure to report a 2.5 million baht luxury watch in her list of assets.
The NACC has however dismissed several cases against Yingluck by different parties since her term ended in the wake of the May 2014 military coup, after which she reportedly fled the country.
Among them are her mismanagement of water resources which had allegedly caused the 2011 flood crisis; the disbursement of 120 million baht from the government’s central budget to facilitate the temporary release of political prisoners; and her abuse of power in enforcing the Internal Security Act during political rallies by the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (yellow shirt group) in 2013 in Bangkok.