The Administrative Court is scheduled to hear on Thursday a petition filed by former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra against an administrative order for her to pay Bt35 billion (S$1.4 billion) in damages allegedly stemming from her government’s rice-pledging scheme.
Read also: Yingluck ordered to pay $1.3 billion over failed rice scheme
Yingluck’s petition argues that the order was unlawful and unfair to her, according to a press release from the court yesterday.
The petition named Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and four other Cabinet members as defendants, according to the court.
Earlier yesterday, Yingluck said she has petitioned the Administrative Court to revoke the administrative order made by the Finance Ministry.
The court has scheduled the trial to start at 1.30pm on December 26.
She said that her legal team has been in the process of seeking a court verdict against the order.
However, Yingluck declined to discuss the matter in detail, saying that she would disclose more at a later time.
The post-coup government has estimated that the previous administration led by Yingluck incurred damages estimated at Bt178 billion stemming from its corruption-plagued project. It was estimated that the former prime minister was responsible for Bt35 billion of the damages.
Read also: Yingluck may be unable to pay 35 billion Baht in civil liability
Yingluck yesterday attended the ninth hearing of defence witnesses by the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders in a case where she is accused of negligence in connection with the rice-pledging scheme.
She was greeted by a large number of supporters and scores of police officers were also dispatched to the court to keep law and order.
During yesterday’s court hearing of defence witnesses, Yanyong Puangraj, who served as deputy commerce minister in Yingluck’s government, said he did not think there were irregularities involving the rice-pledging scheme.
He said, it would be “difficult” to include smuggled rice grown outside the country in the scheme, which offered to buy “every grain of rice” from farmers at prices higher than the market value.
He said that over the two years it was in power, the previous government sold more than 20 million tonnes of rice from the state stock, more than any other administration in the past.
Read also: Trial of ousted Thai PM Yingluck to end in July 2017: Lawyer
