Thai Court Acquits Ex-PM Yingluck Shinawatra In Gov’t Fund Case

A Thai court has acquitted former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, now living in exile, on charges of mishandling expenditures of 240 billion baht ($6.7 billion) for a project in 2013, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

It was the latest favorable verdict for Yingluck, who was prime minister from 2011 until she was forced from office in 2014. I Photo: Moretz Hager, World Economic Forum Flickr

The action comes shortly after her brother Thaksin Shinawatra, who also previously served as prime minister, was released on parole for corruption-related offenses.

Last year, he returned home after more than a decade of self-imposed exile and was detained in a hospital for six months before being granted clemency because of his age and ill health.

Thaksin’s release, after almost two decades of antipathy between his populist political machine and Thailand’s conservative royalist ruling class, raised speculation that Yingluck also might be returning soon.

It was the latest favorable verdict for Yingluck, who was prime minister from 2011 until she was forced from office in 2014. In December last year, the same court cleared Yingluck of abuse of power in connection with a personnel transfer she had overseen.

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