THAILAND SUPREME COURT ON WEDNESDAY SENTENCED FORMER PRIME MINISTER, YINGLUCK SHINAWATRA TO FIVE YEARS IN PRISON FOR ALLEGED NEGLIGENCE IN A MONEY-LOSING RICE SUBSIDY PROGRAM.

The former prime minister of Thailand, Yingluck Shinawatra was on Wednesday, September 27, 2017 sentenced to five years in prison in absentia after the country’s Supreme court found her guilty of negligence in the management of a rice subsidy scheme which cost the country billions of dollars. Yingluck Shinawatra and her supporters said that she is innocent, that the charges are political motivated. She fled the country last month fearing that the military government which was set up after her government was overthrown in a coup in 2014 will seek harsh sentence. Her whereabouts is not known yet but some believed she fled to Dubai where her brother (Thaksin Shinawatra) owns a home. The minister of commerce in her government was last month (August) sentenced to 42 years in prison for falsifying government-to-government rice deals in connection with the subsidy scheme program. A warrant has been issued for Yingluck Shinawatra’s arrest. In 2011 when she was inaugurated, Yingluck became the country’s first female prime minister.