A Former Prime Minister of Thailand, Yingluck Shinawatra, on Tuesday, pleaded not guilty in her closing statement at the end of an 18-month trial over her controversial rice subsidy scheme.
“I didn’t do anything wrong, I am just a woman who used her own experience having been born in the countryside and seeing our farmers’ plight and poverty first-hand.
“I am the victim of a complex political game. I can only hope to rely on the court for justice,’’ Shinawatra tearfully told the Supreme Court in Bangkok.
Around 1,000 supporters gathered outside the court to cheer on Thailand’s first and only female prime minister, who was ousted in a May 2014 military coup, chanting “Yingluck, fight, fight.’’
More than 300 police officers were deployed to control the crowd.
Soon after Yingluck’s ouster, she was charged with criminal negligence for her rice subsidy programme, which allegedly caused the country losses of between 4 and 17 billion dollars.
Shinawatra and her supporters have denied the losses and said that the charges were politically motivated.
The verdict is due on August 25, if found guilty, Yingluck could face up to 10 years in prison and would be disqualified from becoming prime minister again.
In her 40-minute-long statement, Shinawatra also said that all of her bank accounts had been frozen as part of the government’s attempt to levy a 1-billion-dollar fine for the financial losses caused by her rice policy.
In spite of the court case, Yingluck remains popular among the rural populace in the north and north-eastern regions of the country. (NAN)