NAN-F-17
Trial
Bangkok, July 21, 2017 (Reuters/NAN) Supporters cheered as Thailand’s former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Friday arrived for the final hearing in her trial on charges of her negligence in overseeing a rice subsidy scheme which wasted billions of dollars.
Yingluck, who was overthrown in a 2014 military coup, will face up to 10 years jail if found guilty.
The hearing in the Supreme Court in Bangkok said on Friday that it would deliver a verdict on Aug. 25.
Under the subsidy scheme, the government bought rice from farmers at above-market prices, resulting in 18 million tonnes of the grain in stockpiles, which the military government has been trying to offload since 2014.
Yingluck and her Phue Thai Party say the trial is politically motivated and aimed at discrediting her flagship policy, which helped the Shinawatra clan win every election since 2001, but was a disaster for state coffers and distorted global rice prices. (Reuters/NAN)
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Abdullahi Yusuf