Government to provide details about Yingluck’s assets seizure

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BANGKOK, Dec 17  – The government would provide details of legal process to counter fugitive former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s grumble about “double standards” in confiscating her assets, Justice Minister Somsak Thepsuthin said on Tuesday.

Yingluck fled Thailand in August 2017 just before the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division on Political Office Holders was scheduled to deliver a verdict in the case that she was accused of negligence in implementing her government’s rice-pledging scheme, causing hundreds billion of baht in financial damage.

In a post on her Facebook page on Monday, Yingluck complained about her assets that were frozen or seized by the Legal Execution Department.

She said “double standards” being applied against her under the military junta who seized power in 2014.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha had used Article 44 of the Interim Constitution of 2014 since he seized power allowing officers to sell her assets including those she earned before becoming prime minister, Yingluck said.

Justice Minister Somsak said he had instructed the Legal Execution Department to provide facts to the public.

He did not say when the Department would react but suggested it could be a media conference to give full details.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Prayut refused to give any comment regarding Yingluck’s statement, saying “I have not read Yingluck’s message because it is not concerning me.”

The Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions in 2017 found Yingluck guilty for failing to stop the rice-pledging scheme that incurred losses of 536.90 billion baht and sentenced her to a five-year jail term in absentia.