Thailand’s anti-graft body indicts ex-prime minister

Thailand's political crisis deepened yesterday after the country's anti-corruption commission said it would indict ex-prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra for authorising a widely-criticised rice subsidy scheme, a day after the Constitutional Court forced her from office.

The troubled southeast Asian nation installed an acting prime minister to stave off collapse, raising the prospect of renewed street protests by her “Red Shirt” supporters, and the possibility of her joining her brother Thaksin Shinawatra, in exile in Dubai after he was convicted of corruption charges.

“The committee has investigated and there is enough evidence to make a case . . . We will now forward it to the Senate,” Panthep Klanarong of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) said after the agency unanimously voted to indict Ms Yingluck.

This is the third time since 2006 that an elected premier representing Mr Thaksin’s political movement has been removed by the courts or another government agency.

Rural poor
Mr Thaksin and his supporters have a strong power base in the north of the country and among the rural poor, and they have won every election since 2001.

However, the political elite in Bangkok have used the courts and other government agencies to keep him and his family out of power.

Ms Yingluck now faces an impeachment vote by the Senate over the rice subsidy programme, which was one of her government’s main policies, and if she is found guilty, she would be barred from politics for five years.

The anti-corruption commission, which is an independent state agency with wide-ranging powers, may also file criminal charges against Ms Yingluck.

Anti-government protesters, composed of the Bangkok political elite and urban and middle-class voters, have protested against Ms Yingluck’s administration since late last year, occupying official buildings and disrupting elections in February.