13 October 2015•Update: 13 October 2015
By Max Constant
BANGKOK
A Thai prime minister removed from office prior to last year's military coup has asked the country's ruling junta not to seize her assets as part of an effort to gain compensation for losses made during her time in power.
In an open letter Tuesday, Yingluck Shinawatra told junta leader-cum-prime minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha -- the man who overthrew her elected government -- that such an act would be against the law.
“I believe all people are entitled to a fair trial in court which is fundamental to the rule of law," she wrote. “Exercising prime ministerial powers as a judge to order a civil claim without a court decision is definitely against the rule of law.”
Shinawatra wrote the letter after a legal adviser to Chan-ocha claimed he would issue an administrative order to seize her assets because of the cost to the country of a rice-subsidy scheme.
From 2011 to 2014, the then-premier launched a scheme under which rice was bought from farmers at twice the market price with a stated objective of improving farmers' livelihoods.
Shinawatra’s political opponents have since criticized the scheme; saying that it was ill conceived, brought massive financial losses to the state and was riddled with corruption.
Last January, Shinawatra was retroactively impeached from her position by the military-appointed national assembly for dereliction of duty for not stopping the scheme despite the losses and corruption allegations.
The finance ministry estimated that the total losses under the scheme amounted to $15.8 billion.
Last February, a criminal case for negligence was filed against Shinawatra in relation to the same scheme. She is liable to a maximum jail term of ten years.
In April, the junta set up a fact-finding committee in order to see if there were grounds to force Shinawatra to pay for the losses, but over the last few days, several declarations by Deputy Prime Minister Vishnu Krua-ngam have indicated that the junta has given up and is preparing to order her assets seized.
Shinawatra's letter continued, “Since [the coup], I have been continuously mistreated in relation to the rice-subsidy scheme."
On Monday Krua-ngam justified the use of an order, saying that it was legal and that “if the defendant thinks the order is unfair, she can appeal to the administrative court to have it revoked.”
It was not clear on which law the order would be based, but article 44 of the interim charter -- enacted after the coup -- authorizes the junta chief to issue orders which carry the force of law on any matter and to grant himself executive, legislative and judicial powers in order to protect the country's stability and national security.
