{"id":36971,"date":"2017-09-27T12:09:54","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T12:09:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=36971"},"modified":"2017-09-27T12:09:54","modified_gmt":"2017-09-27T12:09:54","slug":"thai-ex-pm-yingluck-sentenced-to-5-years-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=36971","title":{"rendered":"Thai ex-PM Yingluck sentenced to 5 years jail"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Yingluck-2\"International desk: Former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has been found guilty of criminal negligence and sentenced in absentia to five years in prison.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The supreme court convicted her of mishandling a rice subsidy scheme which allegedly cost Thailand at least $8bn. Ousted in 2014, weeks before a military coup, and later impeached, Ms Yingluck denies all charges and fled before the verdict, reportedly to Dubai. Public opinion is divided. She remains popular with rural and poor voters.<\/p>\n

During her trial, Ms Yingluck had argued she was not responsible for the day-to-day running of the scheme and insisted she was a victim of political persecution.<\/p>\n

What was the rice scheme?<\/p>\n

Part of Ms Yingluck's election campaign, it was launched after she took office in 2011.<\/p>\n

To alleviate rural poverty, the government paid rural farmers nearly twice the market rate.<\/p>\n

The scheme hit Thailand's rice exports, leading to an estimated loss the military government says was at least $8bn.<\/p>\n

Though popular with her rural voter base, the scheme was too expensive and open to corruption, her opponents said.<\/p>\n

Where is she?<\/p>\n

Ms Yingluck is now thought to be in Dubai where her brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, lives in self-imposed exile avoiding a 2008 sentence for corruption. Ms Yingluck entered politics only after his sentence and was seen by critics as a proxy for her ousted brother.<\/p>\n

Both siblings remain popular among Thailand's rural poor, but are opposed by an urban and middle-class elite. She is unlikely to serve any of her sentence because she is out of the country. The trail ran over two years, with a ruling initially scheduled for late August. When Ms Yingluck surprisingly failed to show up in court, the verdict was postponed and an arrest warrant was issued for her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

International desk: Former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has been found guilty of criminal negligence and sentenced in absentia to five years in prison. The supreme court convicted her of mishandling a rice subsidy scheme which allegedly cost Thailand at least $8bn. Ousted in 2014, weeks before a military coup, and later impeached, Ms Yingluck […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":36972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n