Former Thai leader faces ten years in jail

Yingluck Shinawatra insists she is innocent of the charge. Picture: Getty

Ms Yingluck faces ten years in jail if found guilty in the case, seen by her allies as part of an attempt by an elite minority to crush her family’s political machine, which has repeatedly won power through democratic elections over the past decade.

In a post on her Facebook page, Ms Yingluck insisted she was innocent and called on the judiciary to give her a fair trial – unlike past cases which she said were “politically intended to  destroy me”.

Ms Yingluck was ousted as prime minister by another court decision two weeks before the military staged a coup last May. Earlier this year, she was impeached by the military-appointed legislature, which banned her from politics for five years.

Yesterday, Supreme Court judge Weerapol Tangsuwan said that a nine-member judicial panel had studied documents submitted by prosecutors from the attorney general’s office and accepted the case since it fell within the court’s jurisdiction. Ms Yingluck was not present. The trial is set to begin 19 May.

Prosecutors accuse Ms Yingluck of dereliction in overseeing the rice subsidy programme, which temporarily cost Thailand its crown of world’s top exporter.

The programme was a flagship policy that helped her Pheu Thai Party win elections in 2011. Farmers were paid about 50 per cent above what they would get on the world market. The programme, however, racked up losses of at least £3 billion as the Thai government stockpiled mass quantities of rice.

Earlier this year, the National Anti-Corruption Commission alleged Ms Yingluck failed to stop massive losses to the state during the programme, and recommended the finance ministry sue her personally for at least 600 billion baht (£12.4bn).

Thailand has been plagued by political turmoil that boiled over after the army ousted Ms Yingluck’s brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, in a 2006 coup. The coup was part of a societal schism that in broad terms pits the majority rural poor who back the Shinawatras against an urban-based elite establishment supported by the army and staunch royalists who see Ms Yingluck’s family as a corrupt threat to the traditional structures of power.

The day Ms Yingluck’s trial begins has significance in Bangkok. It marks the fifth anniversary of a bloody army crackdown against demonstrators backing the Shinawatras who had occupied downtown Bangkok for two months. More than 90 people were killed in the protests.