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BANGKOK — Former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra was convicted in absentia of malfeasance and sentenced to five years in prison Wednesday for corruption that occurred under her watch.

Following a trial that ran over two years and saw its defendant flee the country, the court’s reading of the verdict began at 11am and continued for nearly four hours. In it, judges said Yingluck had been warned by the National Anti-Corruption Commission of graft in a price-pledging subsidy program overseen by her government.

“Importantly, there had been corruption in every step of the price-pledging program. … Moreover, members of the House of Representatives, scholars, press, and public had sent letters, debated, provided opinion about corruption about every step of the rice-pledging program [sic],” according to an English-language summary of the ruling furnished by the court.

I do expect them BOTH back sometime next year with a Royal Pardon..

Thaksin is reported as calling “for reform of the country’s revered monarchy and spoken of his expectations of a ‘shining’ new age after the passing of the ailing King Bhumibol Adulyadej.” According to the article, Thaksin sees that he has a political future in a Thailand led by King Vajiralongkorn.

The Times also makes this claim: “Supporters of Mr Thaksin have told The Times that by endorsing the Crown Prince and lending some of his own popularity, he hopes to gain the support of a future monarch who will not interfere with his political ambitions.” Thaksin is quoted as saying, “The Crown Prince may not be as popular as His Majesty the King…. However, he will have less problem because the palace circle will be smaller . . . He had education abroad and he’s young. I think he understands the modern world.

On Thaksin’s political future, Boyce says:
The King is 78. Even if “the worst” happens — Thaksin is banned for five years, or truly cannot return until the King dies — he knows he has time to make a comeback. He has cultivated a good relationship with the Crown Prince, expected to take the throne upon his father’s death. He is enormously rich. Thaksin cannot be counted out for the long term, whatever happens over the next few months.

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Wed Sep 27, 2017 7:02 pm there friends

Thailand has amended a royal property law to formally give King Maha Vajiralongkorn full control of the agency which manages the multi-billion dollar holdings of the monarchy.

It is the latest change to give greater authority to the king, who has shown himself increasingly assertive since ascending the throne in December following the death in October of his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who ruled for seven decades.

The exact size of the Crown Property Bureau is not made public, but recent estimates have run to more than $30 billion through its holdings in real estate and other investments.

The amendment places the management of crown property under the direct supervision of the king. It states that the bureau’s properties, in addition to the king’s private properties, will be managed “at His Majesty’s discretion”.

hiway5 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 10, 2019 8:57 am Yingluck using her Cambodian passport to run businesses in Hong Kong. Met the selection criteria quickly.

Around the time Yingluck fled, the Phnom Penh Postquoted an official from the country’s Passport Department as saying: “Ms Yingluck [is] Thai, she is not Cambodian, so I don’t issue a passport to foreigners.”
The Ministry of Interior’s Immigration Department also said then it had no reports that Yingluck, Thailand’s prime minister from 2011 to 2014, had departed for Singapore through Cambodia.

Corporate filings in Hong Kong revealed Yingluck, 51, had used a Cambodian passport to register as the sole director of P.T. Corporation Company, a firm incorporated in the city on August 24 last year, almost a year to the day after she went into self-imposed exile ahead of a sentence for criminal negligence.